The Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Florida

I found out about this museum from a friend. A good place to go and be reminded that evil does exist and we must be so careful to never allow hate and evil to prevail. The museum is free! It is the beautiful legacy of Valencia College professor Tess Wise who opened the center in 1986 after experiencing a hate crime. There are plans for the museum to move to a beautiful new building in downtown Orlando. My favorite section featured people from different countries that helped protect Jewish people. Many of them lost jobs while many others lost their lives. Brave heroes!

What an amazing opening night of the Margaret and H.A.Rey exhibition last night! The speaker was so sweet and poignant, remembering the young survivor Jewish girl her family sheltered in France for such a long time. Her husband elucidated her talk with history notes, of which he is a student. Their family was honored at Yad Vashem, with the medal exhibited here, along with other artifacts. Their 66-year marriage is a beautiful love story. The children's fair foods were a very sweet touch while we read the huge plaques of the Rey's story and escape from the Nazis with drawings and manuscripts of Curious George in their baskets on homemade bicycles put together from scrap metal. This exhibition will be meaningful to all ages, with coloring pages and crayons ready for the youngest in the crowd.

Outstanding and Amazing Staff, always ready to answer any and all questions!!! I was Absolutely Honored to visit the Museum and would recommend it to anyone! I believe Everyone should visit this museum to understand all of the Torture and Mistreatment the Jewish People Experienced! Outstanding information, and displays which truly explained all the torture and killings. A Must See!!!!

Very educational, we learned details you just can’t learn from a history book. The exhibit is well maintained with care. Would recommend taking the time to visit.

Very humbling and sobering experience. Staff was extremely friendly and gave personalized tour free of charge. I fully support the state of Israel during this difficult time of war. May God continue to bless and strengthen the Jews.

Our guide was super cool and courteous and knowledgeable. This topic is a tough one. my son ,wife, and I had such a wonderful afternoon learning more about the holocaust at this place.

The museum far exceeded our expectations. My family and I expected to only be there an hour- but stayed much longer. My kids enjoyed the VR experience the most. As a homeschooling mom, I was very thankful that Mr. Poynor was there & took time to talk to my kids , asking thought provoking questions & gave them a mini lesson of the Holocaust. He really made a lasting impression on my oldest son & daughter. Thank you!

So Educational, I didn't even know this place existed. It is so important to teach people about history, especially tragic events like this. That is the only way to avoid it happening again.

Took my kids, 15 & 9. My 15 y/o loves history & enjoyed the visit. My 9 y/o somewhat enjoyed but there is a lot of reading.The current rotating exhibit area was about Curious George author & illustrator H.A. & Margret Rey which she liked. Due to remodel there were only 2 rooms open, expected to reopen the rest of the center in January 2026. I'd say plan for about an hour for your visit. Docents were nice, checked on us periodically to see if we had questions & gave us some bits of information.

I visited the Holocaust Memorial Resource & Education Center of Florida in Maitland recently. I went there to do the free Anne Frank virtual reality (VR) Beyond The Bookcase tour I heard about on NPR. The Anne Frank House partnered with Force Field VR to create it. My first question was: Are the VR sets and headphones clean? The VR set goes right on your face. The employee assured me that they clean everything in between use. Ok good. The VR recreates the Secret Annex where Anne Frank lived in hiding from 1942-1944. You see what life was like in the attic as you are guided through the rooms by Anne. The VR is available in 7 languages and is 25 minutes long. The VR is only for children over the age 13. There were groups of high school students there doing the VR. You sit down during the VR but I moved around in my chair a little. The VR made history come to life. Wow! The employees there were also super nice and helpful. The center and VR experience is free but donations are accepted. The Center's website states the VR experience exhibit is there until 2023.

The only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is because it was so small. I will definitely visit them again when they move to their new & larger location. I had been teaching my grandchildren about the Holocaust. The museum's display fit perfectly into my teaching.

I learned a lot about what happened during the holocaust. It's so sad to see it, but the truth was shown through the artifacts and memorabilia. I Am grated I got the opportunity to go. There was also other exhibits shown that are only there for a short amount of time, such as the Daryl Davis exhibit.

The good: it was free and parking was free. The memorial is mostly one large exhibit hall with pictures, stories, personal testimonies, etc. Quite small. There was also an anti-discrimination type exhibit. The whole visit took probably about an hour. What was frustrating is that not only did they require and ask for an ID which would have been fine, but rather they asked me to email! a copy of my ID - way over the top. I can appreciate care and being protective, but it was way over the top. I have traveled and visited a significant number of Holocaust museums in the world, including Auschwitz in Poland - and this level of excessive scrutiny was not appreciated.

This small museum was founded by a lovely woman named Tess Wise, and was the first Holocaust memorial museum in the southeast, and one of the first of its kind in the United States. For its size, it provides an excellent history of the story of the Jewish people in Europe during this horrible time in world history, beginning with the rise of Adolf Hitler, the mood of Germany (fear), the ghettoization of the Jews followed by the deportation to concentration camps, the death marches, and liberation. Take time to watch the videos, narrated by survivors, including a number of local residents who survived the Holocaust. The wonderful docent had me in tears as she spoke about the founder, Ms. Wise, who has never been able to talk to anyone, even to her children, of her experiences. Regardless of the extent of your knowledge of the era, this is a moving and most worthwhile place to visit.

I attended their weeklong teacher's institute this past summer, and was amazed by the attention to detail and variety of exhibits and programs this tiny center hosts. During the Teacher's Institute I had the opportunity to hear testimony from 3 different survivors, visit a Synagogue, and meet two authors who have published books on the holocaust. Aside from the week-long summer institute, the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center also has a once a month program (usually on Thursdays) where they have survivor testimony from the holocaust and other genocides in the world, discuss topics about tolerence, screen films about the holocaust and other issues (i.e. the genocides in Rwanda, Jim Crow Laws, etc.). The programs offered here are great, and if you are a teacher or simply interested in these issues it is worth a visit!

The people that volunteer here are very knowledgable and really made my experience informative , shocking and interesting. Good job Gary. Thanks

The Holocaust Memorial has amazing information and an incredible library. Definitely worth visiting.

We took some out-of town guests to see the exhibit Fighting the Fires of Hate, about how the Nazis burned the books that decided weren't in keeping with their philosophy. Then we read about that so-called Christian pastor who was burning Korans. Obviously we need places like the Holocaust Center to remind us about the lessons of history we should have learned.