A Tel Aviv University study released on Sunday highlights new and planned museums in the Muslim world commemorating the Holocaust, amid a tide global antisemitism.
The report, published ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, reviews initiatives to combat antisemitism and promote education on the Shoah.
The museums, which showcase both the Holocaust and Muslim heroism during World War II, include the Indonesian Holocaust Museum, also known as the Shaar Hashamayim Holocaust Museum, in Tondano City on the island of Sulawesi; the permanent exhibition on the Holocaust and Righteous Among the Nations “We Remember” at the Crossroads of Civilizations Museum in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates; and the Besa Museum and the Museum of the History of Albanian Jews, currently being built in Tirana and Vlora/Vlorë, Albania, respectively.
“Holocaust denial and the flourishing of antisemitic propaganda in the Muslim world are not just distortions of history but also encouragements to violence,” sad Tel Aviv University Professor Uriya Shavit, head of the Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry. “The museums established and being established in the Muslim world are ‘a small amount of light,’ but this small amount is very important.”
Carl Yonker, senior researcher and project manager at the center, said, “Direct or indirect support from Israel for these museums would harm them, but it is appropriate for international institutions to offer such support and insist on eradicating Holocaust denial from educational institutions in Muslim countries, as everywhere else.”
The Indonesian Holocaust Museum, which was opened by a local rabbi of Dutch descent two years ago in the world’s most-populous Muslim country, features written information alongside visual documentation of Nazi crimes, including a replica of a bunk bed from a concentration camp, and information about neo-antisemitism and Holocaust denial.
When the museum was opened, leading Islamic leaders called for its immediate closure, accusing founder Rabbi Ya’akov Baruch of promoting the Zionist narrative and whitewashing “Israel’s crimes.” To date, approximately 2,000 people have visited the museum.
The permanent Holocaust memorial exhibition in Dubai, which was established by businessman and collector Ahmed Al Mansoori, includes documentation of the history of Nazism and its crimes against Jews, alongside information about Muslims who saved Jews during the Holocaust.
At the center of the exhibition is a poster in Arabic, English and Hebrew quoting the Talmudic saying: “Whoever saves a single soul is as if they have saved an entire world.”
Since the permanent exhibition opened two years ago, about 2,500 people from the UAE and Gulf states have visited, alongside thousands of local school students.
The Besa Museum, currently being built in Tirana, celebrates the ancient Albanian moral code obligating the protection of neighbors and guests, which was central to Albania’s rescue efforts during the Holocaust.
