Top 11 U.S. Sites for Holocaust Remembrance Day Observance

On Jan. 27, 1945, the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp was liberated. Seventy-eight years later, the world will once again commemorate that milestone by observing International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Friday, Jan. 27.

This year, the day will be marked with the theme “Home and Belonging,” according to the United Nations, which designated Jan. 27 to commemorate the Holocaust. A memorial ceremony will be held that day in the General Assembly Hall of the United Nations headquarters in New York, attended by many, including Holocaust survivors and their families and veterans.

Beyond the ceremony itself, people all over the United States can remember the horrors of the Holocaust at museums and memorials throughout the country. From Washington D.C. to New York, California, Florida, and beyond, opportunities exist to learn about what happened and how it relates to today.

These are 11 locations throughout the country to honor victims of the Holocaust.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; Washington D.C.

This Smithsonian museum was chartered by a unanimous Act of Congress in 1980 and serves to memorialize the millions of people who were murdered during the Holocaust. The museum’s permanent exhibit features historical artifacts and personal stories stretched across three floors.

Entry: Tickets are free but must be reserved in advance online with a $1 transaction fee.

More info here.

The Breman Museum; Atlanta, GA

This museum delves into both the Holocaust as well as Southern Jewish history. The museum’s permanent Holocaust exhibit features photographs, memorabilia, family documents, and videotaped interviews with Atlanta-area survivors.

Entry: Tickets cost $12 for adults, $6 for students, $4 for children aged 3 to 6 years old, and are free for children younger than 3.

More info here.

Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center; Skokie, IL

This museum is focused on both the past and the future by detailing the horrors of what happened during the Holocaust and “teaching universal lessons that combat hatred, prejudice, and indifference.” The museum also features a VR exhibit that allows Holocaust survivors to guide visitors around concentration camps.

Entry: Tickets cost $18 for adults, $6 for children aged 5 to 11 years, and $8 for students.

More info here.

Horwitz-Wasserman Holocaust Memorial Plaza; Philadelphia, PA

This memorial is free to visit and features a bronze sculpture given to the city of Philadelphia in 1964. The memorial plaza also includes other reminders of the horrors of the Holocaust, like train tracks from the railroad adjacent to the death camp of Treblinka in Poland embedded in the paving, six pillars honoring the 6 million Jews who were murdered, and an eternal flame to symbolize hope and light.

More info here.

Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust; New York, NY

The Battery Park City museum delves into Jewish life before, during, and after the Holocaust. The collection includes an exhibit featuring 750 original objects, photos, film, and personal stories donated by survivors and their families who settled in New York and nearby.

Entry: Tickets cost $18 for adults, $12 for students, and are free for children 12 and younger. The museum is also free on Thursdays between 4 and 8 p.m.

More info here.

Tucson Jewish Museum & Holocaust Center; Tucson, AZ

This museum, which is housed in the first synagogue built in the Arizona territory, focuses on educating visitors about the Holocaust as well as other genocides. The museum tells the stories of more than 260 Holocaust survivors who later lived in southern Arizona.

Entry: Admission is free.

More info here.

Holocaust Museum LA; Los Angeles, CA

This West Coast museum, founded by survivors in the 1960s, bills itself as the oldest Holocaust museum in the United States. The museum is focused on teaching visitors “to think critically about the lessons of the Holocaust and its social relevance today.”

Entry: Tickets cost $15 for adults and are free for children 17 and younger, as well as teachers and students. The museum also offers free admission all day on Thursdays and from 1 to 5 p.m. on Sundays.

More info here

Kol Israel Holocaust Monument at Zion Memorial Park; Bedford Heights, OH

This memorial, dedicated in 1961, is one of the first constructed in the U.S. It features the ashes and artifacts of Jewish people killed by Nazis from three concentration camps buried at its base. The memorial also includes the names of family members who died during the Holocaust along with the names of survivors who have since died engraved on its surrounding walls.

More info here.

The New England Holocaust Memorial; Boston, MA

This memorial sits in the heart of Boston just steps from Faneuil Hall and on the city’s historic Freedom Trail. The memorial, open 24/7, was initiated by a group of Holocaust survivors living in the Boston area and features six glass towers lit internally with the number six representing the 6 million Jews who were killed in the Holocaust, the names of the six main death camps, a row of memorial candles, and the six years (from 1939 to 1945) when the “Final Solution” took place.

More info here.

Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum; Dallas, TX

This museum was founded in 1984 by Dallas-area Holocaust survivors and features Holocaust survivors’ testimonies, floor maps of Europe during World War II, a restored Nazi-era boxcar, a collection of suitcases with personal items from victims, and more. The museum also has a human rights wing that includes information on the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany.

Entry: Tickets cost $19 for adults and $12 for students.

More info here.

Holocaust Memorial Miami Beach; Miami Beach, FL

This memorial, finished in 1990, features a black granite wall with thousands of names etched. The memorial also includes a meditation garden “dedicated to the memory of the beautiful European culture and its six million Jewish souls, now lost,” as well as a stone tunnel where “the haunting voices of Israeli children sing songs from the Holocaust,” and more.

Entry: Admission is free from 10 a.m. to sunset each day with self-guided tours available with a brochure.

More info here.