Holocaust Museum of SWFL Boxcar arrives in Fort Myers
The boxcar will be on display at Southwest Florida Museum of History April 4- 14 to enhance visitor understanding of the Holocaust.
A panel display about deportation during the Holocaust, as well as genocides in other locations, will accompany the boxcar. Students will have the opportunity to hear the personal story of a Holocaust survivor and to walk inside the boxcar.
After a four-year international search, the Holocaust Museum of Southwest Florida acquired an authentic World War II Boxcar. This 10-ton freight boxcar came to the museum from the Port of Rotterdam, Netherlands on May 16, 2007 and has undergone careful restoration. A rare artifact, this boxcar is an invaluable and mobile educational tool to support the museum’s mission of “promoting tolerance and understanding by teaching the history and lessons of the Holocaust.”
There are only a handful of boxcars on display in the United States. However, in all locations, the boxcar is a stationary artifact. The Holocaust Museum of Southwest Florida is the only museum using it as a traveling educational tool.
The boxcar is now part of a unique education program traveling to area schools to assist students in their study of the Holocaust. During the 2008-09 school year, it will travel to 15 schools in Lee and Collier County, including FGCU, Edison and now the Southwest Florida Museum of History. It is expected to reach over 15,000 students and even more visitors through this program.
The museum is located at 2031 Jackson Street in Fort Myers.
Source: Southwest Florida Museum of History