Catalyze 2026: Eric Stillman (The Florida Holocaust Museum)

For The Florida Holocaust Museum, 2026 is less about unveiling something new and more about doing the painstaking work required to get it right.

The Museum is preparing to convert its entire third floor into The Elie Wiesel Experience, an interactive exhibition built around the largest collection of artifacts from the Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor anywhere in the world. The scope is significant — and deliberately so.

“It’s a monumental task,” says Eric Stillman, the museum’s President and CEO. “We are receiving an enormous volume of artifacts.” The collection includes Wiesel’s personal desk, bookcases and books, materials that will be used to recreate his office and intellectual environment. The goal is to make the collection interactive, personal and reflective, rather than purely observational.

Visitors caught an early glimpse of what’s to come when the museum reopened in September, but the real work is unfolding behind the scenes. Throughout 2026, the museum’s focus will be on cataloging, digitizing and preparing the collection for installation — a process Stillman describes as the most demanding phase of the project.

Teaching the lessons of the Holocaust has always been central to the museum’s mission, and Stillman believes The Wiesel Experience will push that mission forward in a deeply human way. By engaging directly with Wiesel’s words and ideas, visitors will be challenged to consider ethical dilemmas in their own lives — at school, at work and in society.

“We hope people come away asking themselves how they respond to the circumstances around them,” Stillman says. “Ultimately, we want people to become upstanders rather than bystanders.”

The distinction is not theoretical. Stillman points to contemporary acts of hatred and violence as stark reminders of why Holocaust education remains urgent. The museum’s work, he says, is about ensuring those lessons are neither forgotten nor abstracted from everyday life.

Success in 2026 will be measured in progress, not ribbon cuttings. By the end of the year, the museum aims to be well along in processing the full collection and readying it for exhibition. Fundraising efforts are ongoing, but the priority remains responsible stewardship of the artifacts and honoring Wiesel’s legacy with care and intention.

As for who should experience The Wiesel Experience, Stillman’s answer is simple: everyone. That includes longtime visitors who may have learned these lessons before, as well as those encountering them for the first time.

“Whether people have forgotten the lessons, or never learned them at all,” he says, “it’s important for them to come, to experience this, and to reflect on how it might shape the way they see the world.”

For The Florida Holocaust Museum, 2026 is about laying the groundwork for an experience designed to resonate far beyond its walls — and far into the future.