Museum Curator In Florida Races Against Time To Preserve Holocaust Items

Aimee Rubensteen didn't have the luxury to take her time and get acclimated to her new job.

Immediately after starting last spring as South Florida's acquisitions curator for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., Rubensteen began meeting weekly with Holocaust survivors and their family members.

"Time is running out," Rubensteen said. "Truly, the clock is ticking. We need to meet eyewitnesses as soon as possible, before they are no longer with us."

Even the youngest people who survived the Holocaust are getting older — they are 75. And South Florida is home to one of the largest groups of survivors in the country.

This new job — a full-time acquisitions curator dedicated to talking to Holocaust survivors — is the second in the nation. The other is in New York.