Kingwood Rotary Club is honored to be a $10,000 “Premier Sponsor” of an exhibit at the Holocaust Garden of Hope Outdoor Museum in remembrance of victims…including 1.5 million children…survivors, rescuers, WWII Veterans, liberators, and descendants. This one-of-a-kind children’s memorial garden features eight pocket exhibits, each focusing on a specific aspect of the Holocaust.
Our exhibit at this museum was possible thanks to a Rotary District 5890 Grant.
Our exhibit is in the “Life Before the Holocaust” section and is a Chai symbol, which in Hebrew means “life,” “alive,” or “living” and is nestled in the garden area located just behind the entrance to the museum.
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The goal is to educate our children and community that they have a choice when they see someone being made fun of, or when they see someone being taunted because they are different. The project is designed to bring together Jews and non-Jews alike as a community united against hate.
We also have large pavers with the one in the entry which reads, “Kingwood Rotary Club – Create Hope in the World Through Peace”.
The brick entrance gate to the Holocaust Garden of Hope is a replica of the entrance to the “Jasenovac Concentration Camp” which was located in the State of Croatia. Used as both a concentration camp and an extermination camp, it quickly grew into the third largest concentration camp in Europe.
Over 20,000 children were killed at Jasenovac Concentration Camp.
This project is about “Peace and Conflict Resolution” which is one of Rotary’s Areas of Focus. It will serve as a memorial garden in remembrance of Holocaust victims (children & adults), survivors, rescuers, WWII Veterans, descendants, Christians, and liberators.
Click here to read a Houston Chronicle article, “Houston garden project prepares to bloom on the banks of Lake Houston“
The Holocaust Garden of Hope will serve as an educational center with permanent exhibits which will include paintings, sculptures, music, physical structures and creative educational tools to tell the story of the Holocaust, from its origins in the spread of antisemitism through Nazi propaganda, to its aftermath.
The project is currently under construction and the Grand Opening of Stage 1 was held on Sunday, November 5, 2023.
The community is very excited about this museum being built in Kingwood. Kingwood Rotary’s “Chai Statue” is considered the ultimate symbolization of the Jewish people’s commitment to stay alive in the concentration camps. One of the projects includes 1,500,000 memorial “Upstander” stones being hand-painted to represent the 1.5 million children killed during the Holocaust.
The stones are painted by elementary, middle, and high schools, plus students around the world, that will be displayed throughout the museum.
Our Kingwood Rotarians are also painting “Upstander” stones for display. Each stone features the name, age, and place of death of a child who was killed during the Holocaust. Visitors to the Holocaust Garden of Hope can view the stones and begin to understand the astoundingly great number of innocent lives lost.
