For 17 years, Tolerance Week has been focused on events taking place one week each Spring. Events have included visits by Holocaust survivors, film screenings, theatrical and musical performances, targeted at Siouxland eighth graders. We have partnered with the Sioux City Railroad Museum to house a permanent Holocaust Exhibit surrounding a period railcar.
This partnership with the Sioux City Railroad Museum resulted from their mutual goal of expanding the Holocaust education available in our area along with the significant role played by the railcars that transported Holocaust victims to work and death camps during WWII.
Tolerance Week has purchased a period boxcar. Similar railcars were used to transport prisoners during WWII. That railcar will be transformed into an exhibit designed to educate our communities about what happened during the Final Solution. The Railcar Exhibit will include additional displays on a variety of Holocaust events and topics. The result will be the exhibit Holocaust Rails: Desperate Passage.
The goal of this project is education with engagement. One Holocaust survivor stated, “The railcars symbolized our transition from humans to numbers that could be disposed of at any time.”
Tolerance Week is inviting those who wish to be a part of this project to support it through financial contributions at toleranceweek.org. and to follow our progress on Facebook/Tolerance Week. This will be the only Holocaust Exhibit for hundreds of miles and will undoubtedly become a destination. More details will be released soon regarding the project fundraising. We will welcome your support.
