The fire was reported at the CANDLES Museum just after midnight and gutted the building, a former printing plant south of the city's downtown.
``The police said there was a brick that had broken the main glass door, and they threw something in there that was an accelerant,'' said Mary Wright, the museum's education director. ``Even the display cases were practically burned down to the ground.''
Someone also wrote ``Remember Timmy McVeigh'' on a wall. McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, was executed at a federal prison outside Terre Haute in 2001.
``These are hateful people, people who have nothing to contribute to society except destruction,'' said Eva Kor, who founded the museum in 1995. ``What a pitiful life, that people get up in the morning to go out and destroy. They are cowards.''
Fire investigators were being assisted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The Anti-Defamation League offered a $2,500 reward Tuesday for information leading to the conviction of the person or persons responsible. Richard Hirschhaut, its Midwest director, called the fire ``grotesque and disturbing.''
CANDLES stands for Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Experiments Survivors. It houses artifacts from Auschwitz and documents relating to Dr. Josef Mengele.
Kor and an identical twin sister, Miriam Mozes Zeiger, were subjected to Mengele's genetic experiments at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Her sister died of cancer in 1993.
Kor plans to rebuild the museum, with added security features, she said.
``Surviving the camps has taught me to never, ever give up,'' Kor said.
Wright said the museum had never received any threats.
``People think this doesn't happen in nice little places like Terre Haute, Indiana,'' she said.
On the Net: http://www.candles-museum.com/
