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Traffic stopped on Tremont Street in downtown Boston early Tuesday morning as a 12-ton historic railcar was lifted over a hundred feet into the city’s future Holocaust Museum, an artifact donated by the family of a survivor and personal reminder of the tragic chapter for Bostonians to look up at.
“We don’t look at this rail car as just an artifact,” said Jody Kipnis, co-founder and CEO of Holocaust Museum Boston. “We look at it as a witness to history. It carried human beings who were stripped of their dignity and sent towards ghettos, labor camps and extermination camps. … We’re placing the rail car into the fourth story glass bay window, right across from the Freedom Trail, so that no one walks by without being reminded of the cost of indifference.”
The restored early 20th-century railcar was lifted in a 173-foot-tall tower crane to be installed in the fourth-floor of the museum just after 9 a.m. Tuesday morning, watched by museum officials, government officials, members of the Jewish community and more.
The installation is a major step in the construction of Boston’s newest museum, set to open late 2026. The museum will be the only one in New England solely dedicated to Holocaust education.
Construction will continue around the massive historic railcar, measuring 30 feet long, 12 feet high, and 8.75 feet wide, officials said. The exhibit will be visible from the street, set up in a protruding bay window, and visitors will be able to walk through the railcar.
“From outside the museum, passersby will see people enter the railcar, but not exit – a visible reminder of the millions of Jews who were transported to their deaths in railcars just like this one,” the museum detailed.
Kipnis said the installation will be one of many interactive parts of the museum.
“We’re inviting the visitor to really examine the past, but then connect it to things that are happening in present day,” said Kipnis. “Not telling the visitor how to do those connections, but helping them throughout the their journey through the museum.”
The CEO said her hope is “people leave committed to standing up against hatred, bigotry and anti-semitism within their schools, communities and workplaces.”
The railcar was donated by Arizona-native Sonia Breslow, whose father was one of fewer than 100 survivors of the 900,000 murdered at Treblinka, the organization said. The artifact is a “powerful and personal testament to history,” as Breslow’s father was transported to the extermination camp in a railcar of the same type. After surviving the camp, Breslow’s father immigrated to Boston.
The railcar exhibited was discovered in a Macedonia junkyard, the museum detailed, before being brought to the U.S., stored in Arizona and brought to Massachusetts to be preserved by a conservator.
Breslow said Tuesday seeing the railcar lifted into its new home “took my breath away.”
“My father survived a transport to Treblinka in a car just like this,” Breslow said. “Most who were taken there did not survive. For this rail car to be in Massachusetts, a place where he rebuilt his life is deeply personal and ensures that his story and the stories of millions will never be forgotten.”
This time, the people marched in resistance to the harsh treatment of immigrants by the Trump administration.
“We descend from Immigrants and Revolutionaries,” read a battle cry beamed onto the side of the brick meeting house Tuesday.
“The society that stops seeing the people at the grocery line or the people that ride the bus with us, as human beings with beating hearts, then it’s not far off before our society devolves into no society at all,” Gilberto Calderin, director of advocacy at the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition said to the crowd of hundreds.
The protest was organized by activist groups Boston Indivisible and Mass 50501, and began at the Irish Famine Memorial Plaza, just steps from the meeting house.
The lively crowd held up signs, waved American flags, and chanted during the march along Milk Street and Congress Street to the harbor.
Janet England of Brighton held a sign that read, “Democracy Needs Courage.”
The protesters, she said are “true patriots because we want freedom and democracy.”
“Although protest is a long game, we can’t give up. If you think about women’s suffrage, gay rights, the civil rights movement, it took years, but we just can’t give up,” she said.
Gloria Krusemeyer, from Alrington, used a walker to join the march.
“I’m irritated that I haven’t done more, and I’m just lucky that I can walk fast enough to be doing this,” she said.
Rick Mueller, from Cambridge, was dressed as Uncle Sam and held a large sign that read, “Liberty and Justice For All.”
“We’re fighting for America, so I’m gonna be America,” he said of his costume.
He handed small American flags out to protesters who waved them enthusiastically.
Ice dumping duties was limited to volunteers and select people.
Among them was Sarah, a mother who brought her 4-year-old daughter, Fiona.
Sarah declined to share her last name for her daughter’s safety.
After throwing ice into the harbor, Fiona shyly said that she wanted to come to the protest to “help families stay together.”
Through tears, Sarah said her decision to bring along Fiona came from wanting to teach her daughter to care about people from all walks of life.
“Kindness and compassion are things we learn in kindergarten and she will be in kindergarten so it’s really important for her to be kind and compassionate,” Sarah said, kissing her daughter’s check.
Likewise, Sara Sievers, from Cambridge, brought her parents, sister, her nephews and niece to dump ice.
“I think this is one of the most brutal regimes we’ve had in this country, and I want my niece and nephew to remember that it’s important to protest, and that we in Boston are part of a proud tradition of dumping things into the harbor with which we disagree,” Sievers said.
The family wore costumes of historical figures including Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and King Charles.
As the protest came to a close, Martha Laposata, spokesperson for Boston Indivisible said she wanted protestors to walk away knowing their voices matter.
“We cannot stand down,” Laposata said. “When people rise up against an authoritarian government, if they stay consistent and they keep growing, ultimately an authoritarian government will stand down.”
Camille Bugayong can be reached at camille.bugayong@globe.com.
Crime
An MIT professor was shot and killed in Brookline on Monday night.
Brookline police responded a report of a man shot in his home on Gibbs Street, according to the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office.
Nuno F.G. Loureiro, 47, was transported to a local hospital and was pronounced dead on Tuesday morning, the DA says.
Loureiro was the director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center and a professor of nuclear science and engineering and physics. Originally from Portugal, the Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs announced his death in a regulatory hearing before the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Portuguese Communities on Tuesday, according to CNN.
“Sadly, I can confirm that Professor Nuno Loureiro, who died early this morning, was a current MIT faculty member in the departments of Nuclear Science & Engineering and Physics, as well as the Director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center. Our deepest sympathies are with his family, students, colleagues, and all those who are grieving,” an MIT spokesperson wrote in a statement.
In January, Loureiro was honored as one of nearly 400 scientists and engineers with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from former president Joe Biden.
The investigation into the homicide remains ongoing. No further information was released.
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A man was hospitalized after being shot Monday night in Brookline, Massachusetts.
The shooting happened on Gibbs Street. There was a large police presence at the scene.
The victim was brought to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. His condition was not known.
Police said the victim was shot three times and grazed by another round.
Authorities did not say if any arrests had been made.
No further information was immediately available.
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