Florida Holocaust museum opens exhibition about George Floyd

A Holocaust museum has opened an exhibition about George Floyd.

The Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center in Maitland, Florida, was founded in 1981 with the help of Tess Wise, a Holocaust survivor from Poland. The Holocaust museum officially opened in 1986 and was the "first Holocaust museum in the Southeast."

Last week, the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center opened a new exhibition titled: "Uprooting Prejudice: Faces of Change." "In the wake of George Floyd's murder, we felt it was important to bring the meaning of the aftermath to our museum," the Holocaust Resource and Education Center said.

George Floyd died on May 25 while in police custody, and footage shows ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on the neck of Floyd for over eight minutes. In the days after Floyd's death, photographer John Noltner went to the Minneapolis intersection where Floyd died, and asked people, "What do you want to say?"

The exhibit features "45 black and white photos of individuals depicting their powerful emotions and thoughts in response to racism," according to the museum's Facebook page.

"The world is complex. Historical wounds are deep. In all the heated rhetoric of the day, we forget to listen. I hope that through these stories and these faces, you can understand the events of our day in a new way," Noltner said. "I hope you can challenge some of your own preconceptions and I hope you can see the humanity of each and every person. When I photograph a person—no matter who they are—I strive to leave a simple message: I see you. I hear you. And you matter."

Maitland Holocaust Center exhibit honors George Floyd, captures reaction to his deathwww.youtube.com

Floyd's death sparked nationwide protests calling for justice, as well as riots across the country that are reported to be the "most expensive in insurance history," estimated between $1 billion to $2 billion of paid insurance claims.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum describes the Holocaust as the "systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jewish men, women and children by the Nazi regime and its collaborators."

Earlier this month, CNN International anchor Christiane Amanpour compared President Donald Trump's first term to the Nazis' Kristallnacht on her cable news show. The segment was met with swift backlash; critics called the comparison "despicable" and "disgusting."