The Henrietta and Alvin Weisberg Gallery, a new addition that houses an authentic Holocaust-era boxcar, is now open to the public!

The Henrietta and Alvin Weisberg Gallery, a new addition that houses an authentic World War II-era boxcar, is now open to the public. The Nazis used boxcars to transport millions of European Jews and other victims to concentration camps and their deaths during the Holocaust.

A generous gift from local philanthropists Henrietta and Alvin Weisberg funded construction of this new gallery, which was built in memory of Henrietta’s family murdered in the Holocaust, her parents, Sara and Israel Gastfrajnd, and brothers, Rubin and Hershel Gastfrajnd. 

The Holocaust Memorial Center acquired the boxcar in September 2011 with the cooperation of the German National Railroad and the Technical (Railroad) Museum in Berlin.  Believed to be one of the last in existence and the only one exported to the United States from Germany, boxcars such as this transported Jews and other victims of the Holocaust to concentration camps.  Forced to endure crowded, deplorable conditions, many perished in the boxcars before they reached their destinations.

“Nothing could have been worse,” said Henrietta Weisberg regarding her memories of being in a similar boxcar.  “While they have done movies and written books, you cannot truly understand unless you were there.  I want the world to know what happened during the Holocaust so that such inhumanity will never happen again.”

The exhibit serves as a silent sentinel and stands in mute testimony to the horrors of the Holocaust.