[3][4] The museum was founded by a group of Holocaust survivors, under the leadership of the historian Marģers Vestermanis in 1989.

The exhibition speaks about social, economic, political, intellectual and religious life, the legal status of Jews as well as their participation in various historical events in Latvia.

A special chapter is devoted to the honourable deeds of those Latvian citizens who rescued Jews from nearly complete extermination.

He discovered that she was Sorella Epstein, who had been murdered aged 10 in 1941, and a French documentary was made about the investigation, broadcast in France in 2015.

During Soviet times the building served as a place of political education: various ideological events, as well as congresses of the Communist Party, were held there.

Of these items, more than 5,000 make up the main stock, which is included in the Latvian National collection of museums.