16 | JANUARY 18 • 2024

educational programming
across the state. To date, more
than 60 percent of the funds
have been raised.

After renovating the
museum’s core exhibit, “The
Holocaust,
” visitors will
experience redesigned galleries
reflecting the educational
institution’s new orientation.
The installation takes up
15,000 square feet of space
on two levels of the building.
Public tours stopped during
the build phase that began in
late May 2023, but The HC
continued to present a series
of public programs, events and
temporary exhibits.

“Hours of discussion went
into determining which items
should be included to best
meet the goals of our exhibit,
”
Mayerfeld said.
“We got into the weeds,
”
Mulder acknowledged,
describing his collaborative
relationship with RAA. He’
d tell

project manager Gabriel Ivorra
and other principals from RAA
his curatorial vision for the
new exhibit, and they would
come up with ideas. “I would
respond, and we went back and
forth.
” Some decisions were
small but powerful, such as
whether to add a cracked pane
for the Kristallnacht section.
“Each design choice you
make has consequences,
”
Mayerfeld said. “Our big choice
is the focus on the survivors’
testimonies,
” referring to the
museum’s extensive collection
of recorded video interviews.
“We didn’t want to focus on
the perpetrators, but rather
how Jews reacted to their
circumstances in whatever
was happening next,
” he said.
“In ‘The Final Solution’ (a
necessarily perpetrator-focused
gallery), we let survivors talk
about their own family being
rounded up and subjected to

continued from page 14

Midland High School
students tour the new
exhibition that stresses
Jewish responses to
Nazi actions.

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