A COMMUNITY STORY.
A GLOBAL EXPERIENCE

Hope & Humanity: The Core Exhibit

Opening January 18, 2026

A Survivor-Centered Holocaust Exhibition

Hope & Humanity is a redesigned core exhibition that reimagines how the Holocaust is presented, experienced, and remembered. Opening January 18, 2026, at the Holocaust Memorial Resource & Education Center of Florida, the exhibition serves as the first public demonstration of the storytelling methodology being developed for the future Holocaust Museum for Hope & Humanity in downtown Orlando. 

Rather than explaining the Holocaust solely through dates, policies, and perpetrators, Hope & Humanity centers narrative power with those who lived through it. The exhibition invites visitors to encounter the Holocaust through the firsthand experiences of Central Florida’s Jewish survivor community, following their lives as events unfold, choices are constrained, and identities are challenged. 

Each survivor story begins in a different place and moment in prewar Europe and unfolds along an individual path shaped by family, culture, displacement, loss, resilience, and rebuilding. Told in survivors’ own words, these narratives restore agency and dignity, presenting Jews not as passive victims of history but as people navigating impossible circumstances with courage, creativity, and resolve. 

This approach represents a deliberate shift away from perpetrator-centered storytelling toward an experience grounded in lived moments, emotional truth, and human connection. Visitors are encouraged to slow down, reflect, and sit with complexity, recognizing how ordinary lives were disrupted and how individuals made meaning in the face of injustice and violence. 

Hope & Humanity also connects memory to moral responsibility. Interactive elements invite visitors to consider how othering, antisemitism, and prejudice take root, and how individuals and communities can choose empathy, courage, and action in their own lives. The exhibition emphasizes that remembrance is not only about the past, but about the ethical choices we make in the present. 

As both a standalone exhibition and a prototype for the future museum, Hope & Humanity reflects a broader commitment to survivor-centered storytelling, emotional engagement, and education grounded in humanity. It asks visitors not only to learn history, but to carry its lessons forward. 

Why This Exhibition Matters Now 

At a time when antisemitism, hate, and disinformation are rising globally, Hope & Humanity asks urgent questions about how prejudice takes hold and how individuals respond when human dignity is threatened. 

As Holocaust survivors age and firsthand testimony becomes increasingly rare, the responsibility to preserve and share their lived experiences has never been more critical. This exhibition ensures that survivor voices remain central, not as abstract symbols of history, but as people whose lives, choices, and humanity still speak directly to the present. 

Hope & Humanity also responds to a growing need for deeper, more empathetic forms of Holocaust education. In an era of shortened attention spans and polarized discourse, this exhibition slows the experience down, inviting reflection rather than spectacle, listening rather than explanation. By focusing on personal stories and emotional truth, it fosters understanding that facts alone cannot achieve. 

Most importantly, Hope & Humanity bridges past and present. It connects the mechanisms of othering and exclusion that enabled the Holocaust to the moral challenges facing communities today. The exhibition reminds us that history is shaped not only by systems and ideologies, but by individual choices, and that empathy, responsibility, and moral courage remain essential tools for building a more just and caring society. 

Who Is Featured in the Exhibit 

Hope & Humanity centers the lived experiences of ten local Holocaust survivors whose lives and legacies shape the exhibition.Together, their stories reflect the diversity of Jewish experiences during and after the Holocaust, and the enduring impact of survival within our Florida community. 

  • Suzanne Szmajuk Schneider

    A child forced into silence to survive, Suzanne endures hiding and fear before rebuilding a life rooted in testimony and remembrance. 

  • Henri Landwirth

    A boy who survives five concentration camps, Henri transforms a childhood stolen by cruelty into a lifelong mission to restore humanity. 

  • Tess Goldberg Wise

    Denied her dreams by antisemitism and war, Tess survives by courage and deception and later builds one of the nation’s leading Holocaust education centers. 

  • Oswald “Valdik” Holzer

    Exiled across the world by Nazism, Valdik survives through healing others and leaves behind a legacy revealed only after his death. 

  • Harry Lowenstein

    The sole survivor of his German village’s Jewish community, Harry rebuilds Jewish life after returning home to silence and loss. 

  • Albert Hess

    Stripped of home and profession, Albert survives exile and internment before returning to Europe to confront Nazi crimes in the name of justice. 

  • Helen Garfinkel Greenspun

    Deported at fifteen and separated from her family, Helen survives seven camps and carries her story forward as a call to memory and responsibility. 

  • Felicia Deutscher Friedman

    Deported to Plaszów and Auschwitz as a teenager, Felicia survives terror and loss and later bears witness to secure justice against her tormentor. 

  • Simon Brothers

    Brothers forced to flee Germany as teens, Stevan and Eric survive exile while their family’s synagogue and Jewish community are erased during Kristallnacht.