History Through People, Evidence, and Place
RUTH’s exhibit brings together rare, authentic artifacts from concentration camps, survivor testimony, and personal stories, including those with direct ties to San Diego County. Several survivors connected to the exhibit remain actively involved with RUTH, giving visitors a rare personal connection to living history and the enduring consequences of antisemitism, bigotry, indifference, and historical denial.
San Diego Holocaust Survivors Share Their Stories
RUTH: Remember Us The Holocaust opens at the San Diego Central Library in Downtown San Diego on September 29, 2026.
The exhibition brings RUTH’s survivor-centered approach to the heart of downtown San Diego, sharing personal stories, historical artifacts, and testimony that preserve Holocaust memory for new generations.
Location: San Diego Central Library
Address: 330 Park Blvd., San Diego, CA 92101
Admission: Free
The emotional heart of the museum.
Created by Sandra Scheller and inspired by her mother, survivor Ruth Goldschmiedova Sax, the RUTH exhibition combines life-sized survivor representations, personal testimony, rare artifacts, historical interpretation, and local stories.
A permanent Holocaust museum will expand this work with new digital storytelling, archival materials, and stories from additional San Diego-area survivors and refugee families.
A deliberate moral journey
Holocaust chronology
Early antisemitism, rise of Nazism, persecution, ghettos and deportations, mass murder, liberation, and the postwar period.
San Diego survivor stories
Testimony and material evidence from survivors who rebuilt their lives in Southern California.
Antisemitism & history
Historical context, Holocaust denial and distortion, and responsible examination of contemporary antisemitism.
Resistance & moral courage
Stories of individuals and communities who resisted persecution, rescued others, or made consequential moral choices.
Rotating exhibitions
Temporary exhibitions exploring scholarship, art, memory, human rights, and contemporary questions.
Reflection area
A quiet space to process the experience, honor victims and survivors, and consider personal responsibility.
A digital archive built with dignity.
The survivor testimonies and personal stories include those with direct ties to San Diego County. The exhibit tells the stories of Jewish survivors as well as others persecuted during this time. Several survivors connected to the exhibit live in San Diego County and remain actively involved with RUTH, giving visitors a rare personal and direct connection to living history. Through these stories and artifacts, RUTH invites visitors to reflect on the consequences of antisemitism, bigotry, indifference and historical denial, lessons that remain relevant today.