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South African Jewish Museum and Holocaust Center

Commemorating Victims of Nazism and the Apartheid

Nov 14, 2009 Sasha Arms

The South African Jewish Museum and Holocaust Center is an excellent place to understand the context of apartheid as well as the Jewish experience of racist ideologies.

Found in an old synagogue in Company’s Gardens in the heart of Cape Town, the museum dedicated to an historically persecuted group is fitting in post-apartheid South Africa.

South African Jewish Museum

The South African Jewish Museum was opened by Nelson Mandela in 2000, with the aim of communicating the history of the Jewish community within South Africa’s own evolving present-day. The synagogue the museum is built inside was the first synagogue to be built in South Africa when it was constructed in 1863 and is a fitting home to the museum, which feels like a real retreat in the heart of Company’s Gardens. The documentary film, ‘Nelson Mandela: A Righteous Man’, is shown in the museum throughout the day and is an absolute must-see. A lot of the actual exhibits in the museum are old Jewish objects and art. For a more human perspective, the Cape Town Holocaust Center across the courtyard delivers.

Cape Town Holocaust Center

South Africa’s only Holocaust Center captures the tragedy of the victims of racist ideologies – both Jewish and the South African victims of apartheid. While the majority of the center is dedicated to the Holocaust and a Jewish perspective, the apartheid exhibits in the first corridor of the centre remind visitors of the context in which they are reliving and learning about the abominations.

For those who aren’t able to travel to Johannesburg to visit the hard-hitting Apartheid Museum there, the Holocaust Center is a good introduction. For anyone who has been to a Holocaust Museum in the past, the imagery, films and accounts are the same horrifying accounts of a history we’ll be forever shocked by. Although the museum doesn’t have anything new, it is worth visiting and the space is fitting to the subject matter – quiet and set along unobtrusively wending corridors.

Getting in to the South African Jewish Museum

The security involved in getting into the South African Jewish Museum and Holocaust Center is much more involved than other Cape Town museums. All visitors have to sign-in – which is fairly standard – but all bags are searched for guns and other weaponry and visitors pass through a series of claustrophobic glass boxes before they are delivered to the other side. The other side is in fact a quiet courtyard, joining the museum and the Holocaust Center and is a shock following the rigmarole involved in actually getting to that stage.

Aside from the museums, it’s a very pleasant spot to spend an afternoon, if visitors have time on their hands. Plenty of people extend their visit to the complex by lunching in the café or simply sitting in the sun in the courtyard reading the newspaper. It’s also a great place to visit as part of the wider museum trail – the South African Slave Lodge museum and the District Six Museum are both just a short walk away.

The copyright of the article South African Jewish Museum and Holocaust Center in Sub-Sahara Africa Travel is owned by Sasha Arms. Permission to republish South African Jewish Museum and Holocaust Center in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Cape Town Holocaust Centre, South Africa	The South African Experience, Holocaust Center	Definition of Apartheid, Cape Town Holocaust Cente
'Whites Only', Photo in Cape Town Holocaust Center	Archbishop Desmond Tutu Quote, Holocaust Center