The Holocaust Museum & Cohen Education Center in Naples doesn’t scream out “visit me, visit me” but maybe it should.
It is a one-of-a-kind place in Naples with its own history to make sure history isn’t forgotten.
What started as a middle school classroom project in 1997 blossomed into a fully-fledged museum. Today it has more than 1,000 artifacts and original photographs depicting the rise of Nazism to the Allied Liberation and Nuremberg Trials in 1946.
There are educational programs for students of all ages; special exhibits, films and lectures with special guests.
Many of the artifacts have been donated or permanently loaned by local Holocaust survivors and liberators, and from others before and after World War II.
A mind-boggling exhibit is a 10-ton Holocaust-era railway boxcar that Jack Nortman, a museum board member emeritus, donated as part of the museum’s permanent collection.