Cape Town Holocaust Centre

The Cape Town Holocaust Centre stands on the grounds of the Gardens Shul in the leafy gardens quarter at the foot of Table Mountain. The same complex holds the South African Jewish Museum and the community centre, with the national gallery and parliament within walking distance. Founded in 1999, it was Africa's first such institution and remains one arm of an educational foundation whose sister sites work out of Johannesburg and Durban.

Inside, a permanent exhibition unfolds across three rooms covering discrimination, Nazi rule and ghetto life, drawing apartheid into its account alongside European history. Its displays include a dedicated Anne Frank collection beside video testimonies from survivors who built new lives locally after arriving as refugees. Everything traces back to an Anne Frank show staged up-country during 1994 that drew huge crowds and visits from Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu; while imprisoned decades earlier Mandela had found comfort rereading her diary. Since then classroom teaching about this dark chapter became compulsory for Grade Nines nationwide under outcomes-based reforms implemented post-apartheid.

Because teacher training here carries official accreditation, thousands have passed through for professional development addressing prejudice generally rather than any single era alone; rotating presentations beyond Europe range across Rwanda among other modern atrocities worldwide today whenever scheduling permits hosting them all year round without exception whatsoever despite tight staffing budgets constraints operating continuously since establishment around thirty years ago now firmly embedded within civic infrastructure serving greater metropolitan region residents plus international visitors alike equally well maintained throughout ensuring continued relevance going forward indefinitely far ahead always guaranteed forevermore unconditionally so!