At a Crossroads

Holocaust museum says it need more room for its ‘life changing’ exhibits

By Paul Logan
Staff Writer, Albuquerque (New Mexico) Journal
Jnue 6, 2005

Keith Smith of Bedford, England came to the New Mexico Holocaust
& Intolerance Museum because friends said it was a must see.

After viewing the newest exhibit on black slavery, Smith said the
little Downtown Albuquerque museum is a permanent reminder of what
hate can cause.

“Ignorance of what happened in the past will cause us to repeat
these terrible tragedies in the future,” Smith said.

“We see it in parts of Africa…where one group becomes
marginalized for any reason, and they become easy targets for
destruction.”

The museum is in a modest storefront next to the KiMo Theatre on
Central, but its supporters hope it will become a big-time player.

“We’ve reached the crossroads,” said museum president Andrew
Lipman.

The museum wants to move from its 3,100-square-foot building to
another, much larger location in the Downtown area. A site has not
been selected, but Lipman said the goal is to move in two years.

He said the museum will soon receive $985,000 approved in the
last legislative session. That money–along with the potential for
additional state funding in the future–will help to plan, design,
purchase and equip a new site. Lipman said the museum has received
“very strong” support from the governor, mayor and the Downtown Action
team.

Werner Gellert, a museum founder, said the exhibits set the place
apart from other venues worldwide. They reflect American Indian
cultural genocide, Armenian and Greek genocide, the Bataan Death march
and the Holocaust. Gellert, a Jew whose family fled Nazi Germany in
1939 hopes a new site will have space to honor the 5 million non-Jews
who were killed by the Nazis. The Nazis killed about 6 million Jews.
There will also be an exhibit on the gulag, a Soviet system of
forced-labor camps that caused the deaths of about 3 million from 1931
to 1953.

Alfredo Achecar, formerly of the Dominican Republic and now of
New York City, is considering a move to Albuquerque. He said he
“stumbled across” the museum. “It exemplifies a lot of those social
struggles and social dynamics of oppressed minorities,” Achecar said.

Lipman said that about 6,000 people visit the museum annually.
More than 600 students came in April. The museum has received grant
money to provide buses for school field trip transportation. It also
sends information packets on dealing with intolerance to schools
statewide.

“We have young kids that come here and they’re speechless, they
cry, they get angry, they’re very affected by the museum as are the
adults,” Lipman said.

Fifth-grade students from Carroll Elementary in Bernalillo sent
thank-you letters after their museum visit. One student wrote that the
museum “helped our class understand how terrible the Holocaust and
Armenian genocide were.” Another note said, “It changed my life.”