— In a historic home near Dubai Creek, a modest gallery honoring the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust sits alongside exhibits devoted to Islamic civilization, Emirati heritage and the history of Palestine and the Holy Land.
The Holocaust exhibition at the privately operated Crossroads of Civilizations Museum is one of the Arab world’s earliest permanent displays dedicated to the subject. It opened in May 2021, less than a year after the United Arab Emirates established diplomatic ties with Israel under the Abraham Accords, and has since come to represent the Emirates’ emphasis on religious coexistence.
During a recent visit, News Outlet viewed exhibits chronicling Nazi persecution, including a life-size image of the Jewish boy from the iconic Warsaw Ghetto photograph, standing with his hands raised in surrender.
The gallery also highlights Muslims who helped save Jews during the Holocaust, including Egyptian doctor Mohammed Helmy, who hid Jews fleeing Nazi persecution in Berlin.
A photograph of a young Jewish boy raising his hands as armed German soldiers round up civilians in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943 is displayed at the Holocaust gallery of Dubai’s Crossroads of Civilizations Museum. The image is among the most widely recognized photographs of the Holocaust. (Efrat Lachter/News Outlet)
Yet the exhibition’s origins are as personal as the artifacts it presents.
In an exclusive interview with News Outlet, museum founder Ahmed Obaid Al Mansoori, a former member of the UAE’s Federal National Council, said his interest in history began during childhood, when he inherited manuscripts and other objects from his grandparents.
A sign identifies the Multifaith Gallery at Dubai’s Crossroads of Civilizations Museum, where exhibits examine the shared history and heritage of various religious communities. (Efrat Lachter/News Outlet)
He began collecting in earnest in 1989 and eventually created a private museum in his home in 2006. As the collection expanded, Dubai authorities provided a historic building, which opened to the public in 2014.
The Holocaust gallery was added years later.
Ahmed Obaid Al Mansoori, right, founder of Dubai’s Crossroads of Civilizations Museum, stands with a rabbi. Al Mansoori created one of the Arab world’s first permanent Holocaust memorial exhibitions to encourage interfaith understanding and coexistence. (News Outlet)
Al Mansoori said two experiences shaped his decision to create it. The first was a visit to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington during the 1990s, where he was moved by the idea that the Holocaust was a tragedy whose lessons applied to all humanity.
The second came through a conversation with an American Jewish acquaintance who feared growing antisemitism in the United States. He initially brushed aside her concerns, but later saw antisemitic imagery circulating amid a period of unrest in the country and reconsidered. “I realized I was wrong,” he said.
In 2021, he worked with Jewish friends and colleagues to organize a Holocaust remembrance event in Dubai.
A shofar, a traditional Jewish ceremonial horn, is displayed at the Crossroads of Civilizations Museum in Dubai. The instrument is used during Jewish observances including Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. (Efrat Lachter/News Outlet)
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“The beauty about this Holocaust gallery was built by Arabs, by Jews, and by Christians,” he told News Outlet, referring to the international group that helped develop the exhibition.
The project soon grew beyond a single commemorative event.
Al Mansoori said the response at the opening surprised him. Visitors included UAE residents as well as people from across the region. Although the gallery also faced criticism, he decided it belonged permanently in the museum.
“I thought it was very beautiful, very important. And it must stay,” he recalled.
The exhibition officially opened on May 26, 2021, with the Israeli and German ambassadors to the UAE in attendance, according to The National’s reporting at the time.
An ancient manuscript is displayed at the Crossroads of Civilizations Museum in Dubai, whose collections showcase the region’s diverse cultural and religious heritage. (Efrat Lachter/News Outlet)
But Al Mansoori’s ambitions reach beyond remembering the Holocaust.
Elsewhere in the museum, historic maps of Palestine are displayed beside Jewish manuscripts, photographs and documents that reflect the region’s intertwined past.
“You have the maps from the Israeli perspective. You have the map from the Palestinian perspective,” he said, describing his decision to present competing historical narratives in the same setting.
He also recalled a visit by rabbis in August 2020, when Muslim, Jewish and Christian guests prayed together at the museum, each following their own traditions.
For Al Mansoori, the museum is not intended to eliminate religious or political differences. Instead, it seeks to show that people can respect one another while those differences remain.
“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 World War II timeline and historical documents about the Holocaust are displayed at the Crossroads of Civilizations Museum in Dubai. The exhibition honors the six million Jews murdered by Nazi Germany and its collaborators. (Efrat Lachter/News Outlet)
As war and political tensions continue to fracture the Middle East, Al Mansoori sees the museum as another way to engage with the region’s painful history: not by concealing it, but by giving visitors the opportunity to encounter stories and experiences outside their own.
