The Florida Holocaust Museum will reopen to the public in September at 55 5th Street South in downtown St. Pete | St Pete Rising

After more than a year of closure, The Florida Holocaust Museum has announced it will welcome visitors back starting Tuesday, September 9th following an extensive renovation.

With a collection of over 25,000 artifacts, The Florida Holocaust Museum, located at 55 5th Street South in downtown St. Pete, is one of the largest Holocaust museums in the country and one of only three nationally accredited Holocaust museums.

The renovation project includes a new entrance with enhanced security features, an open-air second-story balcony, a theater that will house its interactive Dimensions in Testimony exhibit, and a temporary installation housing elements of the Elie Wiesel Collection.

The full Elie Wiesel exhibit, which will occupy the museum’s third floor, will come in a later phase of the museum’s building projects.

In addition to being one of the most famous survivors of the Holocaust, a world-renowned author, and champion of human rights, Wiesel cut the ribbon at The Florida Holocaust Museum’s downtown location in 1998 and was a professor at St. Petersburg’s Eckerd College for nearly 30 years.

The Florida Holocaust Museum is home to one of the few remaining railroad boxcars used by the Nazis to transport Jews and other prisoners to places like Auschwitz and Treblinka | Florida Holocaust Museum

The Wiesel Collection includes his Nobel Prize, the contents of his office and library, unfinished manuscripts, letters from world leaders, artwork, and audio recordings, and also honors the contributions of his wife Marion, a fellow survivor who translated many of Professor Wiesel’s writings and worked side-by-side with him in his advocacy throughout their lives.

“This treasure trove of artifacts is a game-changer for the museum, St. Petersburg, and our entire region,” said Michael Igel, Interim CEO & Chair Emeritus of The Florida Holocaust Museum.

“Like the man himself, the Wiesel Collection will be a beacon of hope and a catalyst for action. Elie Wiesel was a master at explaining to all of us why the lessons of the Holocaust matter. Now, through innovative programming and exhibitions, the museum will use his voice to ensure that his legacy always remains relevant.”

Danish rescue boat, Thor, which was used to evacuate Jews from Nazi-Occupied Denmark to Sweden | Power & Motoryacht

The museum will house a portion of documents from Wiesel’s library in the Special Collections at the Nelson Poynter Memorial Library on the University of South Florida’s St. Petersburg campus. They will serve as the foundation for USF’s new Elie Wiesel Center for Humanitarian Ethics.

The museum’s expanded gallery will also feature the recently acquired Danish rescue boat Thor, which was one of several fishing boats used to evacuate Jewish people from Nazi-occupied Denmark to Sweden in late 1943, an effort that saved more than 7,000 lives.

The museum is home to an original cattle car, now on display on original tracks from Treblinka, that was used by the Nazis to transport victims to concentration camps.

The project was led by Hennessy Construction Services in partnership with St. Petersburg-based architecture firm Behar + Peteranecz.