General All-Inclusive Museum Admission

There is no cafeteria inside. There are vending machines in lower level with soft drinks, chocolate, snacks, etc. There are a number of good restaurants in the nearby Old Orchard mall. Simply keep your admission tickets and show them at the entrance when you return. Be sure to get back before 4:00 when the doors close. The museum is open till 5:00. Currently, masks encouraged but not required. See my earlier review (Ma 29, 2022) for more details, including the history.

I have been visiting the Holocaust Museum since its beginnings as a small store-front facility on Main Street in Skokie. I think it was a dentist's office before that. The original building is still standing and I marvel every time I drive by at the concept of "The Little Museum That Could" -- now the third largest holocaust museum in the world. Yes, you read that right -- in the world. Here's the back story: Neo-nazis attempted to march in Skokie in 1978 but were stopped by a last-minute court injunction. The attempted Skokie March galvanized a group of local Shoah survivors who knew that the strongest weapon against bigotry is education. They rented office space on Dempster and eventually moved into the Main Street location in 1984. School groups came to visit and a speakers bureau was established to reach those who couldn't visit in person. ' They raised funds for the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising memorial which was erected in 1987 on the Village Green between the Skokie Public Library and the Village Hall. There are ashes from Auschwitz buried behind the monument. In 2009 the current state-of-the-art Museum building opened. All multimedia is captioned and resources are available for the visually impaired. Docent-led tours are available in four languages (Spanish, Russian, French, and Hebrew). For me, the highlight is the hologram exhibit, which is computer generated; is changed every month; and is included in the cost of your ticket. You will experience an interactive, 3-D survivor testimony. The schedule right now spotlights Pinchas Gutter till the end of May; Aaron Elster from June 1 - 30; and Renee Firestone from July 1-31. The amazing technology allows members of the audience to hear the survivors' stories and to ask them questions. (Pinchas Gutter will sing a song for you.) The last time I was there the volunteer docent rephrased some of the questions in order to include the correct trigger words. Museum admission is free on the last Friday of every month in 2022. See my earlier review (August 20, 2022) for more details.

I loved the hologram theater with Fritzi! She was such a genuine, loving, compassionate person. It was rather difficult to listen to all that she had to go through. I cannot imagine the fear that they all went through.