DANIA BEACH, Fla. – The Holocaust Documentation and Education Center plans to build a new museum in Dania Beach after buying a 26,000 square foot building.
The group bought the building, located at 303 N. Federal Highway, for $2.2 million.
"We have the second-largest survivor population in North America, and they wanted to see that their story will be remembered forever," said Rositta E. Kenigsberg, president of the Holocaust Documentation and Education Center.
The new museum will have a railcar and a World War II-era Sherman Tank used to knock down the walls of concentration camps to rescue survivors.
"Horrendous, brutal, deadly. What else can I say beyond that?" said Rita Hofrichter, a Holocaust survivor.
George Katzman was 25 years old when he liberated a camp, something he struggled to speak about for 30 years.
"They were 50 or 60 walking skeletons in front of us," he said. "They didn't weigh more than 60 or 70 pounds. They were smiling. They're free. That's it."
The museum will also have thousands of eyewitness and taped testimonials.
"For survivors, it is a place of memory and never to forget," said Hofrichter.
The museum is scheduled to open in six months.