Museum Executive Director Susan Myers said more than 85,000 people already have viewed the exhibits "Darfur: Photojournalists Respond" and "Escaping Their Boundaries: The Children of Theresienstadt," both of which were originally scheduled to end in August.

Hundreds of people also have already signed petitions urging President Bush and Congress to do more to end the suffering in the African country, she said.

"Darfur: Photojournalists Respond" will now remain on display through Sept. 21, 2008.

Eight internationally known photographers who have witnessed the atrocities there first-hand have taken unforgettable photographs that serve as a testimony to the injustices occurring daily in Darfur. 

The exhibit features 30 photographs from those eight photographers, all of whom participated in the book "Darfur: Twenty Years of War and Genocide in Sudan," created in partnership with Proof: Media for Social Justice, Amnesty International and Holocaust Museum Houston and edited by Leora Kahn.

The exhibit covers three periods in the Sudan crisis, including images shot in 1988, when an estimated 250,000 Sudanese died of starvation; images from 1992 and 1995 that capture the atrocities of a civil war, when hundreds of thousands fled their homes to other destinations in Sudan or left the country altogether; and images from 2005 and more recently, bringing to light the severity of the humanitarian crisis underway, with the Sudanese government and the "Janjaweed" militias committing systematic violence on the people of Darfur.

The Museum’s other changing exhibit "Escaping Their Boundaries: The Children of Theresienstadt" will now remain on view through Sept. 28, 2008.

The ability of children of the Holocaust to confront harsh realities and transcend their physical boundaries through creative expression is the focus of that new exhibit in the Museum’s Mincberg Gallery.

When Nazi Germany occupied Czechoslovakia, the town of Terezin was turned into a ghetto and renamed Theresienstadt. Jews were gathered in this ghetto before being sent further east to the extermination camps. During its existence, more than 12,000 children passed through the Theresienstadt ghetto.

The exhibit features more than 40 objects on loan from the Beit Theresienstadt Museum, Archive and Educational Center in Israel, including collages, drawings, diaries, magazines, games and marionettes used or created by children of the Theresienstadt ghetto in Czechoslovakia. Many of the artifacts have never before been on public display.

The collection includes a rare children’s toy, a 1943 handcrafted children’s game inspired by the popular board game in which property, houses and hotels are bought and sold.

One drawing, "Little Town in the Palm of Your Hand," is of a young girl’s hand. To keep her spirits up and remind her of what was important to her, she drew pictures of all of the places that were important to her in the palm of her paper hand. 

Holocaust Museum Houston is dedicated to educating people about the Holocaust, remembering the 6 million Jews and other innocent victims and honoring the survivors' legacy. Using the lessons of the Holocaust and other genocides, the Museum teaches the dangers of hatred, prejudice and apathy.

Holocaust Museum Houston is free and open to the public and is located in Houston’s Museum District at 5401 Caroline St., Houston, TX 77004.

For more information about the Museum, call 713-942-8000 or visit www.hmh.org.