Miles Lerman

[1] Lerman, a Holocaust survivor himself, had fought as a Jewish resistance fighter during World War II in Nazi German occupied Poland.

[1] The United States Congress passed a legislation granting land on the National Mall in Washington D.C. for the purpose of building the museum.

[1] Lerman, who became chairman of the Campaign to Remember, and the committee managed to raise $190 million in order to construct and endow the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

[1] Lerman's IR Committee managed to obtain a number of important artifacts, including actual barracks from the Birkenau concentration camp, a railroad boxcar used to transport Jewish prisoners to Treblinka, over 5,000 shoes from Majdanek and various toothbrushes, suitcases and other personal items from Auschwitz.

[1] Additionally, Lerman helped to found the museum's Committee on Conscience, which works to draw attention to contemporary genocide issues, such as the current Darfur crisis.

[1] Miles Lerman spoke at the dedication of the new Belzec memorial, which was held on June 3, 2004, telling the story of 9 year old Deborah Katz, one of the death camp's estimated 500,000 to 600,000 victims.

[3] He was survived by his wife, Chris, whose real name is Krysia Rozalia Laks, his daughter, philanthropist Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer; his son David and his brother, Jona.