In 1961, a group of Survivors at a Hollywood ESL class began to share their Holocaust experiences with one another. Soon, they realized that they all possessed photographs, artifacts, concentration camp uniforms, or other precious objects which they had carried with them from the Holocaust. Hidden within these objects were stories of lives, families and communities which deserved to be commemorated and preserved in perpetuity. Moreover, the Survivors also needed a place to memorialize their dead. With these aims in mind, they founded the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, making it the first Museum of its kind in The United States. Many of those founding Survivors still remain active on the Museum's Board of Directors.

The Museum is free because the founding Survivors insisted that no visitors ever be turned away from the Museum for lack of money. Similarly, the Museum has provided transportation to under-funded school districts so that their students may visit the Museum from as far away as Colorado.

With a small and dedicated staff, the Museum continues to fulfill its mission of providing the Southland with an intimate space to educate and commemorate.