Inside Holocaust memorial in heart of Arab world as founder reveals what changed everything
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — In a historic house near Dubai Creek, a small gallery commemorating the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust stands alongside collections exploring Islamic civilization, Emirati heritage and the history of Palestine and the Holy Land.
The Holocaust exhibition at the privately owned Crossroads of Civilizations Museum is among the first permanent displays of its kind in the Arab world. Opened in May 2021, less than a year after the UAE normalized relations with Israel through the Abraham Accords, it has become a symbol of the Emirates' approach to religious coexistence.
During a recent visit to the museum, Fox News Digital saw displays documenting Nazi persecution, including a life-size image of the boy from the famous Warsaw Ghetto photograph, his hands raised in surrender.
The gallery also tells the stories of Muslims who rescued Jews during the Holocaust, including Egyptian physician Mohammed Helmy, who sheltered Jews from Nazi persecution in Berlin.
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But the story behind the exhibition is as personal as the objects it preserves.
In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, museum founder Ahmed Obaid Al Mansoori, a former member of the UAE's Federal National Council, explained that his passion for collecting historical artifacts began in childhood, when he inherited family manuscripts and objects from his grandparents.
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He began collecting systematically in 1989, eventually establishing a private museum in his home in 2006. Dubai authorities later provided a historic building to accommodate his growing collection, which opened to the public in 2014.
The Holocaust gallery came much later.
Al Mansoori said two experiences inspired him. The first was a visit to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington during the 1990s, where he was deeply moved by the message that the Holocaust was a tragedy with lessons for all humanity.
The second was a conversation with an American Jewish acquaintance who expressed fear about rising antisemitism in the United States. Initially, he dismissed her concerns. But after encountering antisemitic imagery circulating during a period of unrest in the U.S., he reconsidered. "I realized I was wrong," he said.
He turned to Jewish friends and colleagues to organize a Holocaust remembrance event in Dubai in 2021.
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"The beauty about this Holocaust gallery was built by Arabs, by Jews, and by Christians," he told Fox News Digital, describing the international team that helped create the exhibition.
What began as a commemorative initiative became something much larger.
At the opening, Al Mansoori said, he was struck by the positive response from visitors, including residents of the UAE and people from elsewhere in the region. He also encountered criticism, but concluded that the gallery should become a permanent part of the museum.
"I thought it was very beautiful, very important. And it must stay," he recalled.
The exhibition formally opened on May 26, 2021, attended by the Israeli and German ambassadors to the UAE, according to The National's coverage at the time.
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Yet Al Mansoori's vision extends beyond Holocaust remembrance.
In another section of the museum, historical maps of Palestine appear alongside Jewish manuscripts, photographs and documents illustrating the region's overlapping histories.
"You have the maps from the Israeli perspective. You have the map from the Palestinian perspective," he said, explaining why he deliberately brings different historical narratives into the same space.
He recalled a visit by rabbis in August 2020, when Muslim, Jewish and Christian guests prayed alongside one another at the museum, each according to their own traditions.
For Al Mansoori, the purpose is not to erase religious or political differences, but to make it possible for people to respect one another despite them.
"It's how to learn to be comfortable being yourself next to others. And others must be also comfortable to be next to you," he said.
As war and political tensions continue to divide the Middle East, Al Mansoori believes the museum offers a different way to confront the region's painful history: not by avoiding it, but by allowing visitors to encounter histories and experiences beyond their own.