The door closes behind you, and suddenly, you’re in the dark. The air is still. A cold floor beneath you. Around you, shadows flicker—portraits of people once packed inside this very kind of railcar. Some clutch children. Some look out, searching for answers. All wear yellow stars. The voice of a survivor echoes: “We were lied to.”
This is what St. Louis visitors will experience this fall when the “Hate Ends Now” cattle car exhibit arrives at the St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum, Sept. 10–14. The traveling exhibition—staged inside a replica of a Nazi-era transport car—brings Holocaust history into stark, immersive focus. It’s not just a lesson, it’s a confrontation.
“This exhibit offers a rare opportunity to confront the lived experience of the Holocaust—for those who were murdered and those who survived,” said Myron Freedman, executive director of the Museum. “It is both a historical reminder and a moral call to preserve memory and stand up against hate in all its forms.”
The “Hate Ends Now” cattle car exhibit isn’t just powerful—it’s intimate and disquieting. Inside the wooden railcar, 360-degree visuals and survivor audio recreate the emotional weight of the Holocaust’s deportations. Most visitors will sit or kneel on the floor, just as victims were forced to do. An elevated pathway ensures access for those who need it.
“The exhibit is a realistic depiction of the horrors of the Holocaust,” said Gloria Kaplan Feldman, a Holocaust survivor and one of the exhibit’s lead sponsors. “Innocent people were forced onto the floor of a crowded, bitterly cold cattle car to be taken to an unknown destination without food, water or facilities. Our hope is that this exhibit helps people understand what Holocaust victims and survivors endured.”
The experience is as much about the present as the past, according to “Hate Ends Now” Lead Educator Jori Reiken.
“Our goal is to bring this immersive, 360 presentation to high school students and college students, across the U.S. and Canada,” Reiken said. “We do this to educate about the Holocaust and about discrimination and hatred that students see—and how they can do something about it.”
Presented in part by Feldman, her daughter Cheryle Feldman Atkin and their family, the St. Louis stop is part of a national tour organized by the education nonprofit “Hate Ends Now,” in partnership with local Jewish institutions across the country.
Tickets for “Hate Ends Now” go on sale to the public on Aug. 11, with Museum members receiving early access beginning Aug. 8. Capacity is limited and tickets must be purchased in advance—walk-up admission will not be available.
Visitors can bundle their cattle car ticket with Museum admission or with the upcoming special exhibition, Stitching History from the Holocaust, opening July 17. The Museum advises the experience is not recommended for children under 10 due to its intensity.
To purchase tickets or learn more, visit stlholocaustmuseum.org/HateEndsNow.
