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The Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre

To learn, to feel, to remember.

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The Collection

The Museum collection holds:

• more than 7,500 objects, archived documents and photographs related to the history of the Holocaust
• 480 survivor testimonies filmed for the "Witness-to-History" program.

The collection is intended for educational purposes, and is used throughout the exhibition and in student-centred activities.

The Centre has a rich collection thanks to the generous donations of objects from survivors who immigrated to Montreal as well as their families.

Objects

The objects in the collection o transmit the memory of events that led to the genocide of European Jews during World War II.

The majority of these objects are directly linked to personal histories and stories and therefore have a unique value.

 

Among the objects exhibited in the Museum, you will find:

• objects related to Judaism and Jewish holidays
• objects of Nazi propaganda
• archives from the ghettos
• objects secretly made inside the camps

Object Research

To enrich its collection, the Museum researches its artefacts and photographs on life before, during and immediately after the Holocaust, or related to antisemitism in the past.

If you have such an object, and you wish to ensure its long-term preservation, please donate your object.

"Witness-to-History" Program

The objective of the program is to:

• collect
• conserve
• archive the life stories of Montreal survivors.

These testimonies:

• Allow us to better understand the impact of the Holocaust on individuals and families,
• Help build the collective memory of the Holocaust.

The Centre has already recorded more than 3,000 hours of testimonies, representing the life stories of 480 survivors. Some excerpts are presented in the exhibition and on this website.

In partnership with CURA (Community-University Research Alliance) Life Stories of Montrealers Displaced by War, Genocide, and other Human Rights Violations, testimonies are being digitized and catalogued in order to protect them from deterioration.


They will also be more easily accessible for future use in the Museum exhibition, for research and for pedagogical programs.

Some exerpts of the conducted testimonies are available on Citizenshift, along with recorded interviews of Montreal residents from Rwanda, Cambodia, Haiti, Latin America, and South Asia.

The Centre continues to record testimonies of those who wish to assure the transmission of memory to future generations.