Inside Holocaust memorial in heart of Arab world as founder reveals what changed everything

Reporting from Dubai, Fox News Digital visits one of the Arab world's first permanent Holocaust exhibitions and speaks with its founder.

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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.

An image of a young Jewish boy with his hands raised as armed German soldiers round up civilians in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943, displayed at the Holocaust gallery of the Crossroads of Civilizations Museum in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The photograph has become one of the most recognizable images of the Holocaust.(Efrat Lachter/Fox News Digital)

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.

A sign marking the Multifaith Gallery at the Crossroads of Civilizations Museum in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where exhibits explore the shared history and heritage of different religious communities.(Efrat Lachter/Fox News Digital)

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.

Ahmed Obaid Al Mansoori (right), founder of Dubai's Crossroads of Civilizations Museum, pictured with a rabbi. Al Mansoori established one of the Arab world's first permanent Holocaust memorial exhibitions, promoting interfaith understanding and coexistence.(Fox News Digital)

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.

A shofar, a traditional Jewish ceremonial horn, on display at the Crossroads of Civilizations Museum in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The instrument is sounded during Jewish religious observances, including Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.(Efrat Lachter/Fox News Digital)

"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.

An ancient manuscript on display at the Crossroads of Civilizations Museum in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The museum's collections highlight the region's rich cultural and religious heritage.(Efrat Lachter/Fox News Digital)

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.

A timeline of World War II and historical documents detailing the Holocaust are displayed at the Crossroads of Civilizations Museum in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The exhibition commemorates the six million Jews murdered by Nazi Germany and its collaborators.(Efrat Lachter/Fox News Digital)

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.

Efrat (Effie) Lachter is a reporter for Fox News Digital with more than 15 years of experience covering conflict, global affairs, human rights and political accountability. She has directed and produced more than 200 documentary segments across more than 40 countries, documenting conflicts, humanitarian crises, corruption, human trafficking, gender-based violence and the human stories behind major world events.

Lachter’s reporting has taken her into conflict zones and crisis areas across the Middle East, Europe, Asia and Africa. Her work has included uncovering human trafficking networks, revealing an ISIS underground torture prison in Syria, documenting the war in Ukraine and interviewing senior political figures and world leaders. She was also among the Western journalists who entered Russia after the war began to bring testimonies from Putin’s opposition. Lachter is the recipient of the 2022 Peres Center for Peace Award and was a 2023–2024 Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellow at the University of Michigan. She also won two Rockower Awards for Excellence in Reporting. She holds a bachelor's degree in communication and a master's degree in political science.

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