Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Centre has announced the opening of a new satellite museum, Illinois Holocaust Museum presents Experience360. The location opened on 26 August in downtown Chicago at 360 N. State St.
Launching during Skokie Museum renovations, the new location ensures the museum’s vital mission continues amid rising antisemitism and hatred, making Holocaust and genocide education more urgent.
Using advanced technology and immersive storytelling, Experience360 at the Shapiro Family Foundation Center allows visitors to step into history and engage in highly personal and interactive ways.
Connecting to the past with technology of the future
“We’re thrilled to bring some of our most impactful exhibitions to new audiences in downtown Chicago,” says Bernard Cherkasov, CEO of Illinois Holocaust Museum. “Experience360is a bold reimagining of how we connect people to the lessons of the past using the technology of the future.”
Experience360 showcases a selection of the museum’s acclaimed exhibitions. This includes the Northern Trust Virtual Reality Theater, where they join survivors as they journey through childhood hometowns, concentration camps, and hiding places in a captivating 360-degree film experience.
The ITW Special Exhibition Gallery, Stories of Survival: Object. Image. Memory, displays photographs, artefacts, and mementoes from Holocaust and genocide survivors’ stories. In the Karkomi Family Foundation Gallery, visitors examine key events from 1933-1945, with images, photographs, reflections, and testimonies from survivors and victims.
The Lillian & Larry Goodman Foundations Holography Theater introduces a new interactive feature with three interviews created with USC Libraries, the USC Digital Repository, and the USC Shoah Foundation. Visitors can hear firsthand accounts from Holocaust survivors and engage in conversations in this innovative space.
The exhibit features a call to action showing how Chicago-area survivors and community members united to turn hatred into resistance. Their efforts led to the creation of Illinois Holocaust Museum, a testament to the community’s commitment to truth and justice.
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Among the new holographic additions are Holocaust Survivors Rodi Glass and Marion Deichmann, both of whom also feature in the Museum’s VR films—offering a uniquely layered storytelling experience. Visitors can initially explore their journeys in virtual reality, then “converse” with them through life-sized interactive holograms.
Kizito Kalima, the first non-Holocaust Survivor in the Museum’s Survivor Stories Theater, is also featured. As a Tutsi Survivor of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, Kalima’s testimony adds a new global perspective to the Museum’s mission and provides profound insights into resilience and recovery.
Deepening engagement and inspiring lasting reflection
“In our more than a decade of developing interactive survivor biographies, we’ve seen firsthand how these conversations deepen engagement and inspire lasting reflection,” says Sam Gustman, associate dean of technology at the USC Libraries and chief technology officer and senior director of collections at the USC Shoah Foundation.
“This partnership with IHMEC enables visitors to engage directly with the singular voices of survivors’ testimonies, including – for the first time ever – the voice of a survivor of the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda. The immersive experience enriches Holocaust and genocide education by fostering personal connection and deeper historical understanding for audiences of all ages.”
Illinois Holocaust Museum’s Experience360 provides a panoramic perspective on history and truth, welcoming visitors from all backgrounds to explore stories of survival, pose questions, and reflect on the past in ways that foster empathy, respect, and hope.
Last year, the new National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam opened its doors as the Netherlands began a year of commemorations to mark 80 years since its liberation from the Nazis.
