Consul General Armen Baibourtian Visited the Holocaust Museum in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES – On April 6, Consul General of Armenia in Los Angeles Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Armen Baibourtian visited the Holocaust Museum in Los Angeles. He was greeted by the Holocaust Museum’s CEO Beth Kean and the Board Chair Michele Gold. They gave Ambassador Baibourtian a private tour through the halls of the Holocaust Museum, which has a mission to commemorate those who perished, honor those who survived, and educate about the Holocaust and inspire a more dignified and humane world. The exhibits chronologically present materials about the time period preceding the Jewish Holocaust, the Holocaust perpetration and commitment of this heinous crime, and documented testimonials. Beth Kean and Michele Gold introduced the Armenian Consul General to the use of digital technologies, which creates a sense of direct communication with the survivors of the Holocaust conveying first-hand historical information. This mode of presentation is so interesting for students that they regularly visit the Holocaust Museum in LA from various U.S. states, even form neighboring Mexico.

Ambassador Baibourtian shared his powerful impressions to the leaders of the Holocaust Museum. He stressed on the importance of the continuous public awareness of the Holocaust history and its remembrance especially in these days of Holocaust commemoration, as is the case with other genocides, including the Armenian Genocide. Beth Kean and Michele Gold also introduced Ambassador Baibourtian to the Museum’s corner that represents the Armenian Genocide.

The Consul General underlined the importance of cooperation between institutions and museums that exhibit and voice the horrors of the greatest evil committed against the humanity. They touched upon a possible cooperation between the Holocaust Museum LA, the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute in Yerevan, and the Armenian American Museum and Cultural Center of California in Glendale. The participants of the meeting agreed to initiate joint projects aimed at preventing in the future the crimes of the past.

Founded in 1961 by Holocaust survivors, Holocaust Museum LA is the oldest museum of its kind in the United States. It has a 70-screen video sculpture that displays the 52,000 survivor testimonies from the USC Shoah database. The Holocaust Museum LA opened its permanent subterranean building in Pan Pacific Park in October 2010, where it has since had over 250,000 visitors.