Founded in 1998 and opened in 2001, the New Mexico Holocaust & Intolerance Museum is dedicated to eliminating hate and intolerance through education. Our exhibits illustrate–through artifacts, memorabilia, pictures, documents, videos, and books–historical conflicts caused by local, national, and global prejudice, culminating in the most unspeakable of all horrors, the Holocaust.
We are dedicated to providing knowledge on genocides and intolerance throughout history continuing to present day. Approximately 50 percent of the museum focuses on the Holocaust, covering the horrors perpetrated by the Nazis against both Jews and non-Jews. The remaining space is devoted to other genocides, human rights, and social justice issues. The facility includes a research library that is available for public use. The museum has recently embarked on a program to revise all of its exhibits to reflect current perspectives and best practices in museum exhibits and education.
The museum has long been involved in the community and has organized and sponsored a wide variety of events including lectures, panel discussions, film screenings, plays, visual art exhibits, and dance performances. In addition to the hundreds of students who visit the museum each year, it also receives substantial walk-ins from New Mexican, out-of-state, and international visitors. We charge small admission fees and rely on volunteers, generous donations from supporters, and grants from foundations and grant making agencies for funding.
In March, 2023, the museum became a USHMM Community of Holocaust Education Center (CHEC).
Our Founders
Werner Gellert (1926-2019)
Werner Gellert was born in 1926 in Breslau, Germany. After witnessing the antisemitic riots of Kristallnacht, he escaped with his parents to Shanghai, China. Because of the Japanese occupation in 1943, they were forced into the disease-ridden Hongkou ghetto where they experienced severe malnutrition while surviving typhus, yellow fever, and serum hepatitis.
After the war, Werner, who was fluent in seven languages, worked gathering information for the Army Graves Patrol until 1948 when the Gellerts left Shanghai for Denver, Colorado where he met his future wife, Frances “Frankie” Silverman. Werner was unable to complete rabbinical studies because of bouts of hepatitis, so together he and Frankie entered the world of finance in California where they also raised their daughter, Julie.
After moving to Albuquerque, the couple used much of their retirement savings to open the New Mexico Holocaust & Intolerance Museum and Study Center in 2001. Their purpose was to draw attention to the history of genocides and the many events of “man’s inhumanity to man.”
Frances "Frankie" Gellert (1930-2007)
Frankie came into the world November 17, 1930 in Denver, Colorado where she first was called Frances A. Silverman. Educated in the public schools, she graduated from the University of Denver where she met her future husband on a blind date. Frankie and Werner Gellert married in 1950.
The couple entered the world of banking in California where they raised their daughter, Julie, and participated in many community activities until they moved to Albuquerque in 1993. The Gellerts worked together with Julianna K. Lerner to make New Mexico’s first and only Holocaust museum a reality.
Frankie personified warmth and kindness. She greatly influenced folks from all walks of life who were moved by her commitment to “never forget” again. She left us on May 17, 2007.
Dr. Julianna K. Lerner (1927-2010)
Julianna K. (Glass) Lerner was born to Jewish parents in Austria in 1927. Before arriving in Albuquerque in 1998, her world travels and travails–including the extreme difficulty in securing an exit visa from Nazi occupied Austria—took her from Vienna, to Amsterdam then England before the family landed in Queens, New York in 1940.
Between that year and until she arrived in New Mexico, Julianna studied at several colleges, married, had three children, and earned a Ph.D. in languages. After completing a further degree in finance and investment, she worked as a trader on Wall Street until she decided to return to teaching and translating.
In Albuquerque, Julianna joined Werner and Frankie Gellert to create the New Mexico Holocaust & Intolerance Museum and Study Center. Julianna also honored her cousins who perished in the Holocaust by co-founding Sonja’s Legacy Foundation.
Educating the Future
Education has always been the focus of the museum and youth is our target audience. Critical to our mission since inception has been our program of educational outreach for students and teachers, both in and outside of the museum. Education outreach includes internships with high schools and the University of New Mexico, outreach programs for middle and high school students across the state, and an upstander program for elementary school students.
Our Location
The museum opened in the Freed Company Building at 415 Central Avenue NW, near the Kimo Theater. Originally a shared space with the Wheels Museum and a local theater company office that subsequently moved out, the Gellerts upgraded and expanded the exhibits and increased the educational outreach program. In 2009, the museum moved to its current location at 616 Central Avenue SW.
Staff
- Executive Director
(position vacant) - Administration
Lyn Berner - Collections
Camelia Caton-Garcia - Programs
Nathan Johnson - Library
Sheri Karmiol - Communications
April Parli - Education
Alexander King - Volunteers
Melody Sanchez - Finance
Sheldon Liebman
Board of Directors
- President
Regina Turner - Vice President
Margaret Hirsch - Secretary
Gloria Taradash - Treasurer
(position vacant)Rodney Bowe
Scott Melton
Jennie L. Negin