Holocaust Memorial Museum San Antonio

06/25/2026

On June 25–26, 1941, a pogrom (organized riot or massacre ) took place in the old Jewish quarter of Slobodka, Kovno. Some so-called “partisans,” joined by Lithuanian students, broke into Jewish homes. They carried guns, axes, and knives. These perpetrators murdered more than 800 Jewish men, women, and children. They set homes on fire, burning the people inside. They drowned other Jews in the nearby Vilija River. In other cases, they forced some of the victims to dig their own graves before murdering them.

Source: Holocaust Encyclopedia, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

06/24/2026

On this day in History | Germans Occupy Lithuania
On June 24, 1941, the Germans moved in to occupy Lithuania. They murdered about 90% of the Lithuanian Jews, one of the highest victim rates in Europe.
Source: USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia

06/22/2026

As an organization dedicated to preserving the memory of the Holocaust and educating future generations about the consequences of prejudice and indifference, the Holocaust Memorial Museum of San Antonio is proud to join the organized Jewish Community of San Antonio in signing this statement.

Remembering history means applying its lessons today. We believe institutions have a responsibility to uphold the values of dignity, respect, and inclusion, and to reject the normalization of antisemitism in all its forms. We invite you to read the full statement and stand with us in speaking out against hate.

Join us: https://speak4.app/lp/ye01ksfo?ts=1782139333

More than 80 years after the Holocaust, the responsibility to remember—and to act when confronted with hatred—remains urgent. The organized Jewish Community of San Antonio unequivocally condemns antisemitism in all its forms and rejects the repeated antisemitic statements, symbols, and conduct promoted by Ye (formerly known as Kanye West).

Over several years, Ye has repeatedly targeted Jewish people with hateful rhetoric, released a song titled “Heil Hitler,” and marketed merchandise bearing a Sw****ka. These actions are not isolated controversies or regrettable missteps. They reflect a sustained pattern of conduct that trivializes and glorifies the ideology responsible for the murder of six million Jews and millions of other victims of N**i persecution.

Ye has since issued a public apology, attributing his conduct in part to bipolar disorder and a brain injury. While we do not dismiss the possibility that mental illness and injury are relevant contexts, the recurrence of this conduct over many years, including after previous apologies, requires that his actions—not his words alone—be the measure of accountability.

Because of these realities, we respectfully urge the City of San Antonio and the management of the Alamodome to decline the use of this publicly owned venue for Ye's scheduled July 4 performance, and to review its policies and procedures that led to this decision.

This request is not a call for censorship. We hold free speech among our most fundamental values, not despite our history, but because of it. Ye has the same constitutional rights as every other American. He is free to speak, and private venues are free to host him. The question before the City is not whether Ye may perform somewhere. It is whether public resources and a publicly owned facility should be used to host and elevate someone whose public conduct has been marked by repeated hate speech.
The issue is one of stewardship. Taxpayer-supported facilities belong to the people of San Antonio, and public institutions must decide what they choose to elevate through the use of public property.

Jewish tradition teaches that people are capable of change. Teshuvah—repentance—requires more than words. It requires acknowledgment of wrongdoing, efforts to repair harm, and sustained actions that demonstrate genuine transformation. Accountability and growth are possible for anyone, but they must be demonstrated through conduct, not merely proclaimed.

San Antonio's values of dignity, inclusion, and respect are best reflected when public institutions refuse to lend public resources to those who repeatedly promote antisemitism and hate.

Signed,
Jewish Federation of San Antonio
Jewish Community Relations Council
Holocaust Memorial Museum of San Antonio
Alamo Brandeis B’nai B’rith Lodge
Barshop Jewish Community Center
Chabad of Boerne
Chabad Center for Jewish Life and Learning
Chabad Downtown San Antonio
Chinese American Citizens Alliance of San Antonio
Congregation Agudas Achim
Congregation Beth Am
Congregation Shalom
Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Campus of the San Antonio Jewish Community
Hebrew Free Loan Association of San Antonio
Hillel San Antonio
Israeli Chabad of San Antonio
Jewish Family Service of San Antonio
Jewish War Veterans of San Antonio
National Council of Jewish Women, San Antonio
San Antonio Jewish Senior Services
Temple Beth-El

Join us: https://ow.ly/8C3C50ZfnJk

06/21/2026

Happy Father's Day to all of the amazing fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers out there. We appreciate everything you do for us, and for our community!

06/19/2026

Check this out! The San Antonio Public Library was selected to be one of the 50 U.S. libraries to host Americans and the Holocaust, a traveling exhibition from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the American Library Association (ALA). Through photographs, artifacts, and primary sources from the 1930s and 1940s, the exhibition explores how Americans responded to the rise of N**ism, World War II, and the Holocaust. Make sure to swing by Central Library through July 26 to experience the exhibit!

Learn more: https://www.mysapl.org/Events-News/Events-Calendar?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D204325508

06/18/2026

Tune in tonight at 7pm as one of our favorite partners, San Antonio Public Library, opens the “Americans and the Holocaust” traveling exhibit at Central Library with a special presentation from Dr. Isaac Amon. The exhibit is presented by the American Library Association and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and runs from June 18-July 25.

Explore what Americans knew about the Holocaust as it unfolded and ...

06/18/2026

During Pride Month, we honor the experiences of LGBTQIA+ individuals who faced persecution under N**i rule between 1933 and 1945. Their stories reflect courage in the face of oppression and the profound human cost of hatred and discrimination.

Among these testimonies are accounts from men prosecuted under Germany’s Paragraph 175, a law used by the N**i regime to criminalize sexual relationships between men. Originally enacted in 1871, Paragraph 175 remained part of Germany’s criminal code and was aggressively enforced by the N**is. The law made sexual relations between men a criminal offense, leading to arrests, imprisonment, and, for many, deportation to concentration camps. While the statute did not apply to sexual relationships between women, N**i ideology nonetheless condemned le***anism. Authorities often viewed le***an women as capable of being “reformed” and pressured them to conform to the regime’s expectations, including marriage and motherhood in service of its racial policies.

06/17/2026

Liga Terezin was an organized soccer league formed by Jewish prisoners inside the Theresienstadt (Terezín) Ghetto in N**i-occupied Czechoslovakia between 1942 and 1944. Thousands of inmates gathered to play and watch the games, using the sport as a brief psychological escape from the horrors of hunger, disease, and the constant fear of deportation to death camps.

Source: Beit Theresienstadt Archive

06/16/2026

On This Day in History
Deportation of Jews from Łazy, Poland, 16 June 1942
Łazy was a mining town of approximately 1,500 residents close to Katowice, Poland. The Jews were approximately one-sixth of the town’s population. At the end of 1940 and the beginning of 1941, Jews began reaching Łazy from the areas of Western Poland annexed to the German Reich. On 16 June 1942, most of the Jews of Łazy were deported to Auschwitz.

Source: Yad Vashem

06/12/2026

Paul Mahrer was a professional Jewish athlete who traveled the world in the 1920s and 1930s for matches and tournaments. He represented Czechoslovakia at the 1924 Paris Olympics, wearing the national team’s jersey. In 1942, Mahrer was arrested by the Gestapo and deported to Theresienstadt. Despite censorship, he was able to write letters to his wife, who was interned elsewhere. In them, he expressed his love for his family and his enduring devotion to the game: “We have enough. Tell our boy that I played soccer again and even played well and was successful. My beloved, just stay healthy and well. I love you. Kisses …” In 1945, Mahrer was liberated and reunited with his family.

Source: Museum of Jewish Heritage