Holocaust Museum’s Stunning $34 Million Expansion and Houston Reopening Turns Into an Emotional First Look Celebration

The sense of pride was palpable as donors, survivors and dignitaries entered the newly-expanded Holocaust Museum Houston for the “First Look Celebration,” giving guests a preview of the $34 million expansion that more than doubled the museum’s size. Few could have been more pleased than HMH board chairman Benjamin Warren, both of whose parents were Holocaust survivors.

“This reopening of our museum is the culmination of the dreams of my mother, my father, who are both survivors, but also all of those heroic survivors who came to our city and who started a life and built an incredible future and didn’t just survive but thrived,” Warren tells PaperCity. “And, sadly, there are very few of them left with us today. But fortunately, we now have this new museum that will assure that their voices are heard.

“That we are a clarion. What they dreamed, what they experienced, stays around and fills the world.”

The well-heeled throng of more than 800 glided through the three-story structure that today boasts four permanent galleries, two changing exhibition galleries, classrooms, a research library, a 200-seat indoor theater, a cafe and a 175-seat outdoor amphitheater.

The expansion places HMH as the fourth largest Holocaust museum in the country. It opens to the public this Saturday, June 22.

The overwhelming sense of celebration noted during the “First Look” was tempered by an underlying sorrow that could not be denied as one passed through the chilling Nazi-era rail car, viewed the photos and stories of Holocaust victims, and sat for the sobering orientation film in the Morgan Family Welcome Center.

There was further poignancy to the evening as one of the museum’s most generous benefactors, Lester Smith, who had died only months earlier, missed the full glory of the new Holocaust Museum Houston, Lester and Sue Smith Campus, as it is officially known.

In a special salute to the Smith’s generosity, a $15 million matching grant for the expansion, a gallery was named in their honor. The announcement of the Lester and Sue Smith Human Rights Gallery was made in a brief program held in the Albert and Ethel Herzstein Theater on the museum’s second floor. Accepting the honor was Sue Smith, who was accompanied by Lester’s children, Stuart Smith, and his wife Limor, and  Shelly Hendry with her daughter, Mirren.

The first look was, however, far from a somber evening as music (Divisi Strings, Moodafaruka and John Acevedo) filled all three floors of the museum and food stations tempted with special offerings, provided by Chef Smirnov, from across the globe. A celebration it was, organized by former HMH board chair and current board member Tali Blumrosen in conjunction with museum managing director Tamara Savage.

Among the many notables, we spotted Dr. Kelli Cohen Fein and Martin Fein, his mother a survivor, studying the paintings in the Samuel Bak Gallery while we noted Nancy and Jack Dinerstein taking a close look at writings in the Diarists Gallery. And we saw Benjamin Warren in one of the classrooms pointing out the portrait of his mother, Naomi Warren, done by Barbara Hines.

Before the program Sue Smith and Trish Morille were remarking on the striking Jerold B. Katz Family Butter Loft, a kaleidoscope of 1,500 shimmering butterflies, each representing 1,000 children who died during the Holocaust.

PC Seen: Margaret Alkek Williams, Bailey Dalton Binion and Greg Binion, Joy Warren, Eric Blumrosen, Laurie and Dr. Milton Boniuk, Gail and Milton Klein, Kisha and Jason Itkin, Jerry Martin, Gary Tinterow and Christopher Gardner, Jane and Dean Gladden, Linda and Carl Kuhkendall, Laura Max and Ben Rose, Simone and Dr. John Irwin, and HMH CEO Kelly Zúñiga and Luis Zúñiga.