How did the Museum get started?
On November 1, 1978 President Carter established the President’s Commission on the Holocaust and charged it with issuing a report on the state of Holocaust remembrance and education in the United States. Almost a year later, on September 27, 1979, the President’s Commission presented their results and made four main recommendations: • That a living memorial be established to honor the victims and survivors of the Holocaust and to ensure that the lessons of the Holocaust will be taught in perpetuity; • That an educational foundation be established to stimulate and support research in the teaching of the Holocaust; • That a Committee on Conscience be established that would collect information on and alert the national conscience regarding reports of actual or potential outbreaks of genocide throughout the world; and • That a national Day of Remembrance of Victims of the Holocaust be established in perpetuity and be held annually.
