When the Nazis occupied his hometown of Dęblin, Poland, in 1939, Sam Harris was just four years old. His childhood was shattered by the horrors of the Holocaust, and as a young boy, he became one of the youngest Survivors to endure the concentration camps.
Against overwhelming odds, Sam survived. Two years later, Sam was adopted by the Harris family and began a new chapter in Chicago, where he carried with him a story of resilience, survival, and the enduring strength of the human spirit.
Sam went on to become an instrumental force in building Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center, driven by a deep commitment to ensuring that the world would learn from the lessons of the Holocaust. Sam recently passed away in March 2025 at the age of 90.
As the generation of Holocaust Survivors dwindles, the urgency of preserving their voices has never been greater. According to the Claims Conference, approximately 70 percent of living Holocaust Survivors are expected to pass away within the next decade. Recognizing this reality, Illinois Holocaust Museum sought new ways to ensure that firsthand testimony would not be lost and to create opportunities for future generations to engage directly with Survivors’ stories, ask questions, and learn from their experiences long after these witnesses are no longer with us.
The Museum has partnered closely with Holocaust Survivors and leading organizations, including USC Shoah Foundation and East City Films, to create groundbreaking experiences that bring Survivor testimony to life for new generations. These include Dimensions in Testimony, a collection of interactive holographic interviews that allows visitors to converse directly with Survivors, and The Journey Back, an immersive virtual reality experience that transports visitors alongside a Survivor as they retrace the sites and memories of their Holocaust experience, across the world.
Although Sam Harris is no longer with us, visitors to Illinois Holocaust Museum and its downtown location Experience360 can still sit across from him, ask questions, and hear his responses in his own words. His voice. His testimony. His truth. Preserved for future generations. Survivor stories are breaking through the Museum’s walls through the Museum’s immersive Voices of Survival platform and Traveling Mobile Virtual Reality Trunks, ensuring that Survivor experiences continue to educate, inspire, and people continue to bear witness.
How To Help
To accommodate more visitors and provide them with a world-class experience, Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center is currently undergoing renovations to its main campus in Skokie. The renovations will include a new visitor welcome center, a redesigned state-of-the-art auditorium, and a new reflection space within our core exhibition, among other exciting upgrades to ensure the Museum’s mission of “remember the past, transform the future, remains strong for many decades to come.
As the Museum fulfills its mission through the exhibition, preservation, and interpretation of its collections, donations help ensure the Museum can support its mission and foster the promotion of human rights and the elimination of genocide.
This post was submitted as part of our “You Said It” program.” Your voice, ideas, and engagement are important to help us accomplish our mission. We encourage you to share your ideas and efforts to make the world a better place by submitting a “You Said It,” which can earn a nonprofit that you champion a $1,000 donation from the Make It Better Foundation and eligibility for a Philanthropy Award, grant content partnership, and greater engagement with our audience.
During her over 20-year tenure Kelley Szany has become an internationally recognized leader in Holocaust, genocide, and museum education. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Educators Institute for Human Rights, and is Co-Chair of the Illinois Holocaust & Genocide Commission. Szany has won multiple awards for her educational and human rights work, including the Samuel Goldsmith Award from the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, Damen Award from the Graduate School at Loyola University of Chicago, and the Carl Wilkens Fellowship where she worked alongside national leaders to create and strengthen a permanent anti-genocide constituency through both advocacy work and influence of U.S. policy.
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