The Virginia Holocaust Museum is a museum in Virginia State that depicts the horrors of the Holocaust as its victims experienced it. It was co-founded by Al Rosenbaum, Holocaust survivor Jay M. Ipson and Mark Fetter in 1997. The museum was open to the public in 2003. In its first year, it welcomed more than 10,000 visitors mainly from the United States and from Asia, Europe and South America. A lot of school groups come here each year.
The museum was built from the research and memories of the horrors of the genocide associated with Adolf Hitler. The exhibits in this museum were designed to be realistic, as if visitors were right there when the persecutions happened. For example, if you look at the photograph of a small dark tunnel, you feel like crawling through it to know just what it must have felt like to hide in a small and boxed in place. That's the effect the exhibits here are designed to have on visitors. As a visitor here, you are best advised to see the exhibits here in a certain pre-set order for which you can either choose to go with a guide book or take an audio-guided tour.
At the museum, you can see films on the subject of the Holocaust, or participate in tours, lectures, programs and any other events and activities. Many of the stories are the experiences of the Holocaust survivors who were residents of Richmond. At present, there are 28 exhibits.