The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center reopened its Skokie facility at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 11, ending a closure that began in June 2025 for renovations, The Record North Shore reports.

The museum at 9603 Woods Drive welcomed veterans and active and retired service members with free admission on Veterans Day, with up to four family members of each veteran also admitted free.

Among the visible upgrades: an enlarged lobby with new seating and bathrooms, and a relocated auditorium with expanded capacity and technology.

According to The Record, the $10 million overhaul — financed through public and private funds — is the most significant capital project the center has undertaken since opening the Skokie building in 2009.

Rather than a cosmetic refresh, the renovation deepened the core exhibition itself, The Record North Shore says.

Staff used the closure to enhance the Zev & Shifra Karkomi Holocaust Exhibition with new material on the roots of antisemitism and Germany's anti-Jewish laws, plus an interactive map tracking the opening and closing of concentration camps.

Most strikingly, the exhibit now features more stories of local survivors and of people killed during the Holocaust.

One section that previously showed Nazi propaganda to discuss the murder of people with disabilities now displays letters written by Walter Lauer, a man killed in part because of his epilepsy, and traces the work of one of the Nazi perpetrators.

Halfway through the main exhibit, visitors will find the new Reflection Gallery — a room with soft benches, calm lighting and tissue boxes, which The Record North Shore says was designed to help guests rest while exploring content added to the exhibit.

Director of education Leah Rauch told The Record that the changes make the long and heavy exhibits more accessible and give visitors a safe space to explore this difficult history, which she called more relevant than ever amid a rise in antisemitism.

The Goodman Auditorium gained 40% more seating and upgraded technology, and Resilience Hall's expanded stage now supports presentations for the hundreds of students who visit every year.

The stakes of the reopening reach back to the museum's origin, The Record North Shore recounts: it began as a small storefront in downtown Skokie after a neo-Nazi group proposed marching in the village in the 1970s, and organizers alongside local survivors like the late Sam Harris fundraised to build the 65,000-square-foot center at Woods Drive in 2009.

The museum has seen attendance rise over the past 10 years, communications head Amanda Berman told The Record, and docent Julie Swislow says the improved main exhibit follows the story better and feels very open. Its downtown satellite exhibit, Experience 360, remains open until Dec. 31.

Meanwhile, the Los Altos History Museum's 'The Road I Call Home,' Randy Bacon's portraits of people experiencing homelessness, runs Nov. 19–Jan. 24, 2027, showing how two very different museums are rethinking whose dignity their walls hold.

Regular public programming resumes in the expanded spaces, with Resilience Hall and the Goodman Auditorium supporting the educational presentations The Record North Shore says reach hundreds of students annually.

Admission details and reopening week access were confirmed by The Record for the 9603 Woods Drive location, with the downtown Experience 360 exhibit available through Dec. 31.

In parallel, the Los Altos History Museum in California has opened 'The Road I Call Home,' Randy Bacon's portrait series it says reveals the beauty, individuality and dignity of each person, supplemented by local photographs by S. M. Lieu — a reminder that museums are rethinking whose dignity their walls hold.