William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum

What a great sight to see and a great exhibit at the Atlanta, GA. Definitely go if you have a chance. I had Goosebumps when I entered the hangar. There’s quite a bit to see and read about here. There are exhibits and then there’s the giant hanger where the Endeavour is parked. I remember seeing it and thinking, «Wow, it really is HUGE!»

Although relatively small in size, the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum is modern, well-​maintained, well-​organized and curated to feature interesting and meaningful content. Our visit coincided with a full room exhibit of the works of Maurice Sendak, author and illustrator of such noted books as «Where The Wild Things Are.» The Breman Museum ($ 12 adult admission) had few visitors on the morning of our visit, so we were free to browse at-​will.
The Maurice Sendak exhibit began our tour, and it was quite interesting. Our oldest son, a college writing professor, and his fiancé, a recent recipient of a masters degree in library science, each lent welcomed additional perspective as our family toured this display. A wealth of hands-​on display material accompanied displays of Sendak’s major works.
We next moved to a room whose theme was the chronologically organized history of Jewish Atlanta. Particularly interesting were accounts of the early Jewish settlement, and the migration of newly arrived European immigrant populations from the urban centers of the Northeast. I was surprised to learn that the 2006 Jewish population of Metro Atlanta had reached 120,000. Most poignant and touching were the letters, artifacts and accounts of Leo Frank, an Atlanta factory supervisor falsely accused of murdering a young woman in the early 1920’s. Although exonerated of the murder charges, he was dragged from his prison cell and lynched by members of the newly-​resurgent KKK. Disturbingly, this sad chapter was completely overlooked in Atlanta’s otherwise excellent Center For Civil & Human Rights.
The third, and clearly the most emotion-​laden, room visited was a permanent display entitled, «The Absence of Humanity: The Holocaust Years, 1933 – 1945.» Through photos, written accounts and a few artifacts, the visitor is ushered from a period of rich cultural and civil participation in Eastern European society, to gradual isolation and denigration of civil rights, and eventually, to the attempted extermination of European Jewry. Immense in its powerful images, the displays encircle the visitor as if to display the harsh reality that no escape was possible.
There are few non-​photographic artifacts, but one which literally brought tears to my eyes was a large, very fashionably dressed doll, in pristine condition. The doll was a gift from a family member returning to Poland from foreign travel, and was obviously cherished and well cared for by the little girl to whom it was given. As the Nazis closed in, the doll was hidden in a closet before the little girl, and her family, were rounded up for transport to a concentration camp. Many years later, a surviving family member was able to retrieve the doll from that closet. The doll’s eyes were bright with innocence, and the energy of youth, yet her facial expression seemed to convey a sense of having witnessed events which betrayed her youthful innocence. I found this to be a deeply moving display.
The William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum was a wonderful and meaningful stop on our family vacation to Atlanta. Located in the Arts District, it is a relatively short walk from the MARTA station, and completely worthy.

NEVER, EVER FORGET!
I have been trying to get to this museum for several YEARS but just found it difficult. This is not the kind of activity where the family wants to join in and I knew that it would be a very emotional experience. Well, this weekend my husband finally agreed to go with me. We decided to go on a Sunday afternoon when it would be quiet and we could really appreciate the exhibit. It took us a minute to get out of the car because we were anticipating what we would encounter once we passed through those doors. We did a simultaneous sigh and exited the car.
Prior to going you will want to be aware of certain rules that they have like no gum chewing, no pens or markers and no large bags. Also the hours listed on Unilocal are in accurate, as the hours indicate that the museum is closed on Sunday which is clearly not the case.
This exhibit is very graphic and detailed and is not appropriate for young children. I would only take a young child if I have actually seen the entire exhibit and can determine what content is appropriate for my child. There were parts of this exhibit that I couldn’t handle.
There was an elderly woman there asking her grandson if he wanted to see «a movie». That movie was a graphic account of survivors of the death camps. As I slipped into one of these rooms, a woman on screen was describing the beheading of a cardinal. I immediately left. If you must take children, please be careful and supervise their viewing of all material.
The museum does a great of painting the picture of Jewish life before, during and after the Holocaust. When we think of this period time, we usually just focus on a very specific period. We fail to realize that the atrocities took place over a period of 12 years, (1933 – 1945)
TWELVE YEARS PEOPLE !! This just blows my mind. It is unconscionable to think that a maniac was allowed to systematically dehumanize and murder a race of people over that period of time while the world stood in silence.
It covers very early examples of persecution of Jews throughout Europe and before the Holocaust Years. I was very impressed with the sheer number of photos and artifacts that were beautifully preserved and presented within the exhibit. In one of the rooms, that had actually mounted the rails that carried the trains, that carried the people to the death camps.
It was nice to get to the end of the exhibit and to read of the liberation, and those that were not only saved from the camps but were reunited with love ones.
A horrible story that is beautifully told through pictures, and first hand accounts. It is powerful and emotional and very worthy of being seen.

We visited the museum this morning and the permanent exhibit was very powerful. It’s called «Absence of Humanity: The Holocaust Years, 1933−1945» and it consists of many photos & documents. The special exhibit is about the Rich’s Department Store and it was interesting. The gift shop is small, but it has a pretty good selection of books.

This museum is located within walking distance of the High so I decided to pop in. The people that work there are super nice. I think it took about an hour to get through both exhibits and I read 80% of the descriptions. It was pretty enlightening, but like others, I don’t think I would recommend this museum to everyone. If you are remotely interested in Jewish heritage or the Holocaust, go. If not, you might find it boring and worth a skip. Their secondary exhibit was about Rich’s department store and I found it to be interesting, despite never hearing of it since I’m not from Atlanta. Four stars for great use of space.

This is a very small museum, when compared to other Jewish museums I have visit before. However I enjoyed my visit to it. There strong part is the permanent exposition of the Holocaust and it is quite impressive. It mainly consists on pictures and descriptions but it is still impressive. You leave this museum wondering how did we let something like that happen?
I definitively recommend this museum to whoever wants to learn about Jewish traditions or the Holocaust.

For a small local museum they pack a lot in.
The woman at the ticket booth gave me a fair warning: You can try to read every plaque, but you might get tired after a while. I reprint that as a compliment, you can spend a lot of your time reading all they have in here. Every artifact is clearly identified and the space is used very well.
I don’t know if I’d recommend this museum for people visiting Atlanta, I’d this is more of a locals museum. The local feel takes the sometimes sterilized message of «war affects people from all over» and really gives you names and faces of people who spent most of their lives in Atlanta. For example, I was looking in photo of a couple with their daughter and dog posing outside a fancy looking car and about 10 minutes later I was watching video testimony from a woman in her 70s talking about her pre-​war life. While she’s talking the video goes from her image to that of the family by the car. It really hit home knowing the picture wasn’t of faceless person I had no connection to, but of this woman who was telling her story 60 years later who has a stronger Southern accent that I do.
The artifacts here aren’t just whatever the museum could get, but actual pieces from locals.

My second visit to the Breman Museum — previously I visited while the museum featured a Maurice Sendak exhibit on Where the Wild Things Are — today I visited on the last day of «The Superhero 1938 to 1950» which featured original artwork from the Golden Age of comic books. Wow, the exhibit was much better than I expected, featuring original works by: Simon and Schuster (creator’s of Superman), a whole slew of Batman creators including Dick Sprang and Jerry Robinson (creator of the Joker), works by Joe Kubert, Lou Fine, Alex Schomburg, Mac Raboy, Will Eisner, Jack Kirby, Joe Simon — the list goes on and on. My favorite was the cover of Ghostrider #2 by my favorite fantasy artist, Frank Frazetta. Most of the works I’ve never seen in-​person — these were illustrated covers and interior artwork, really spectacular stuff.
The exhibit was enhanced with a film room featuring clips from old superhero serials (Superman starring Kirk Alyn) — I believe there were others but I only stopped to watch the first two episodes. There’s also a long-​running interview of various creators including Bob Kane, Jerry Robinson, Dick Sprang, etc. on video before a recreation of a typical comic book studio from the era. Amongst the furnishings were relics of various creators like hats and other articles once owned and lent to the exhibit by the various estates. There were also many priceless comics to compare to the various original artworks with anecdotes and explanations regarding the various pieces. All-​in-​all a very well-​rounded exhibit — I’m so glad I managed to catch it before its end.
There were also quite a few activities for kids, something you don’t often see in museums. These included costumes for the kids to wear and a Batmobile ride and played the Batman theme from the 60’s Adam West TV series as it moved back-​and-​forth.
Overall the museum is well presented and lit — besides the Superhero exhibit there’s a permanent exhibit regarding early Altanta Jews and their contributions. There’s also a holocaust exhibit that’s rather difficult to view due to the content, but should be viewed by every human, to fully understand those events from WW2.
I backed off a star as I was put-​off by a couple of things — the first was the security gate you have to pass to both enter and exit. I can only imagine that it’s necessary due to location but it seemed a bit extreme. The second thing was the gift shop — it just seemed very sparse to me and something that needs work (most museums make quite a bit of revenue via the shop — I can’t imagine this one contributing much if anything). They were also out of the Superhero program catalog — I think that’s the first time I’ve ever heard of something like that.

While the Jewish Film Festival is going down, I thought to keep the theme alive and visit the city’s jewish museum. The permanent holocaust exhibit takes the viewer through the years and culture before WWII through the liberation of the nazi concentration camps. The museum curated the Comic Book special exhibit currently on view and the funnest part is seeing old serial episodes of Superman from the 1950s! It’s $ 12 for adults and well worth it for a thought provoking experience in an oddly calming space.

«Great way to spend a day.»
I’ve visited the museum twice earlier this year (once with an exgirlfriend & again with her and her mother). Out of all the different museums that promote cultural difference & diversity, from the APEX to the William Breman, this one was the more welcoming … especially to a muslim kid such as myself.
On my first visit, the Heritage Society had a meeting & documentary viewing. We popped our heads in to see what was going on. After the movie, I shared with them I was interested in learning more of my g/f’s culture and the room lit up! Advice from all over of which exhibit to hit first.
As shared previously by Bonnie, The Leo Frank portion was done really well. I’d known of the story from a WSB special ran a couple of years ago but the museum offered way more information than what was explored by the television special. Tons of info was possibly overlooked or just left out by the news.
The second visit allowed for a greater experience. I was able to go through the Holocaust exhibit more carefully & take in more. It captures you from the first step into the room. The photos, the videos, & the stories shared all allow you to follow the tour.
It was surely one of the more powerful exhibitions I’ve visited here in Atlanta.

I visited here on a Sunday afternoon and had a really good experience. I was a bit worried because I came with my boyfriend and he’s not a huge reader and/​or museum person so I didn’t want him to be bored the entire time we were here. Admissions for the museum and exhibits was $ 4 for students and $ 10 for adults. I didn’t check out the senior or child cost, cause really it doesn’t apply to me. The exhibit that was the visiting or temporary exhibit was the Leo Frank story. You can read about it on Bonnie’s post below or through the smart internet. I’m not going to say I loved the exhibit, I am a big reader but after reading panel after panel it was a bit exhausting (and we still had a ton more to see). I ended up reading a lot of the summary’s along the bottom and was able to understand the story. From there we went into the permanent exhibit displaying the life of Jews in Atlanta. It was broken down into different sections such as sports, business, holidays, etc. I really liked this exhibit because there was much more visual stimulus. After that we went into the Holocaust section of the museum. This is the first Holocaust Museum I have ever visited and it was absolutely emotionally draining. It’s one thing to see a slide show of photos on television, but to look at each individual photo and read names and stories behind people was really hard and heartbreaking. We spent a good two hours in this part of the museum.
The only negative thing I have to say about the museum, as Bonnie said below, is that there isn’t really a clear flow of the museum. You kind of have to figure it out yourself.
Overall I really enjoyed my visit here and I’d love to come back with my mom and experience it with her.

This museum is worth a visit. Currently, the featured exhibit is about the case of Leo Frank, a Jewish manager of a pencil factory accused of murdering a 12 year old girl. He proclaimed his innocence throughout, but was ultimately sentenced to death. The governor of Georgia commuted his sentence to life imprisonment, but a lynch mob kidnapped him from prison and killed him. Evidence later emerged that strongly implicated the janitor at the pencil factory for the girl’s murder. Leo Frank was posthumously pardoned for the killing on the ground that the prison system failed to protect him. It’s a fascinating story, and the Breman museum has captured it quite thoroughly.
In addition, the museum has two other permanent exhibits. One is about the Holocaust, based largely on accounts of local survivors. In the Holocaust exhibit, there is enough material to occupy your time for literally hours, mostly because of the primary source videos they show on repeat in various little booths. The videos are organized by time period, to correspond to the themes of the exhibit itself. Each video contains edited footage from several Holocaust survivors, and the stories flip back and forth between these people. The videos are quite poignant, and these individuals are remarkable and moving. However, some of the videos go on forever and ever, and with this subject matter, that can be really draining. It’s also sort of disconcerting not to know how long is left in this video — I watched one for at least half an hour and there didn’t seem to be an end in sight. I think it could be done better with updated technology, where you could read a little background on each individual and then press a button and listen to that individual’s story, rather than hear them all spliced together in a long video.
The other exhibit is about Jewish history in Atlanta. There are some fun artifacts here, like a newsletter with an ad for Passover coke, and various photographs depicting Jewish traditions in the American South. My favorite was this huge, intricate dollhouse that depicted a modern Jewish American home, complete with magnifying glass you could use to look in the various rooms.
One comment about the museum in general — the paths of all the exhibits are really ambiguous. It’s really not clear where you’re supposed to start and end, and everything in between. This became frustrating especially in the Leo Frank exhibit. Upon entering the museum you are confronted with a circle. There are things inside and outside the circle, but it is utterly unclear where the begining of the circle is. Plus, there’s a background video on the Leo Frank case that’s part of the permanent exhibit about Jewish history in Atlanta — they explained this to us but it was still confusing.
Finally, during my particular stay, there was a group of really loud people hogging one of the stations at the Leo Frank exhibit. I could not help but be irritated by this.
I always feel a little guilty giving mediocre reviews to Judaism-​related stuff. Got to be honest, right? I enjoyed the museum very much, but the organizational confusion kept it from being a cohesive experience for me. It is a good museum, though, and I am psyched that Atlanta has a great Jewish community going on.