Traveling Holocaust Museum Open In Cocoa Through Thursday

By  //  April 22, 2015

features 600 pieces of student-created art

ABOVE VIDEO: More than 25 speakers, including ninth grade students, will lecture on bullying and multiple historical topics during the Holocaust Museum Central Florida 2015 Exhibit.

BREVARD COUNTY COCOA, FLORIDA — More than 25 speakers, including ninth grade students, will lecture on bullying and multiple historical topics during the Holocaust Museum Central Florida 2015 Exhibit.

Holocaust Museum Central Florida 2015-180This unique traveling art museum, created and staffed by school children, opens for five days beginning Sunday, April 19.

The student artists, ranging from grade school through high school, travel with the museum and serve as guides.

Museum organizers have announced that all students and teachers will be admitted free, as well as any adult who accompanies a student.

Nova Conner of St. Cloud is excited to see the Holocaust artwork displayed here in Central Florida.

She will be one of over 40 volunteers staffing the museum.

Karel Reynolds
Karel Reynolds

“My heart was touched,” she said, after watching video of the children’s work on the museum website and hearing how much they love the Jewish people and the nation of Israel.

With more than 600 pieces of student-created art, including oils, pastels, charcoals, pen and ink drawings, sculptures, and scale models, the museum will completely fill the exhibition hall at the Space Coast Convention Center on I-95 and SR 520.

It will open from 5:30 p.m. – 9 p.m. on Sunday, April 19, and continue from Monday – Thursday, April 20 – 23, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Viera author Jaimie Engle will lead a seminar on ways to prevent bullying, on Monday, April 20, and repeated on Wednesday, April 22, both nights from 6–7:30 p.m.

Viera author Jaimie Engle will lead a seminar on ways to prevent bullying, on Monday, April 20, and repeated on Wednesday, April 22, both nights from 6-7:30 p.m. Engle wrote the anti-bullying children’s book Clifton Chase and the Arrow of Light after her son was bullied at school.
Viera author Jaimie Engle will lead a seminar on ways to prevent bullying, on Monday, April 20, and repeated on Wednesday, April 22, both nights from 6-7:30 p.m.

Engle wrote the anti-bullying children’s book Clifton Chase and the Arrow of Light after her son was bullied at school.

“Remember, with #everykidsvoice we can #targetbullying to stop it!”​ she said.

Museum director Karel Reynolds will add insight on connections between bullying and the Holocaust.

A full schedule of lectures on various Holocaust topics will be offered from Monday to Thursday.

Speakers include Holocaust survivors, teachers, a concentration camp liberator, and ninth grade students.

A Holocaust survivor will recount his experience on “The Voyage of Doom,” the MS St. Louis, a ship with nearly 1,000 German Jews that was not allowed to land in the U.S. in 1939.

An Auschwitz survivor will speak to viewers at the new Google Earth view of the Auschwitz concentration camp, which has been called “the largest cemetery in the world.”

Jaimie Engle
Jaimie Engle

An interactive exhibit created by a University of Central Florida freshman will be displayed in the Room of Remembrance near the museum entrance.

This mural shows survivor photographs and stories that viewers can access with a smart phone using QR codes.

The project won the top Eagle Scout Award in 2013 and is permanently housed with the Southwest Orlando Jewish Congregation.

Retired pastor Ron Shelton was astonished at the quality of the traveling exhibit when he first viewed it in Washington, DC almost five years ago.

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He inspired members of the Sister City Program of Cocoa, Florida and Beit Shemesh, Israel, to raise funds required to transport and house 60 museum staff, including the children artists.

SISTER-CITY-PROGRAM-180Currently about 1,000 local area students from 20 schools are scheduled to attend.

Adult prices are $10 at the museum or online.

Contributions to the museum can be made on the website, at the museum, or by mail to the Sister City Program.

Sister City Education Committee chairperson Diana Watson said the exhibit is appropriate for children of all ages, and that the museum is family friendly, without compromising the message of the holocaust.

“We want the student ambassadors of this museum to share their vital message of love and understanding with the students of our community,” said Watson.

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