Holocaust Memorial Museum

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum serves as the official national memorial dedicated to preserving the memory of the millions of European Jews and others systematically persecuted and killed during the Holocaust during World War II.

IDENTIFICATION: A museum dedicated to the documentation, interpretation, and study of the Holocaust

DATE: Opened to the public on April 26, 1993

PLACE: Located on the National Mall in Washington, DC

Planning for the Holocaust Memorial Museum began with a presidential commission established by Jimmy Carter in 1978; in 1980, the US Congress passed legislation to establish a council charged with planning the memorial. The land for the museum was donated by the federal government, and the funding was secured through the private donations of more than two hundred thousand individuals. After years of planning by main architect James Ingo Freed, construction of the museum began in July 1989. After nearly four years of construction, the building was completed in the spring of 1993.

The architectural design of the building is intended to symbolize several aspects of the Holocaust. For example, four towers are located on the north side of the building to represent the watch towers located at many of the death camps. In addition, triangular shapes are located throughout the building to symbolize the triangles that were used to mark the Jewish people sent to such camps. The main part of the museum comprises the permanent exhibition, which details a chronological history of the Holocaust. Included in this exhibition is the Tower of Faces, a three-story-tall tower containing over one thousand photographs of Jewish life in Europe before the Holocaust. In addition to the permanent exhibition, the museum has displayed several special exhibitions over the years, including “Faces of Sorrow: Agony in the Former Yugoslavia,” “The Nazi Olympics: Berlin 1936,” "Remember the Children: Daniel's Story," "Some Were Neighbors: Collaboration & Complicity in the Holocaust," and "Americans and the Holocaust." The museum is also home to the Committee on Conscience, a privately and publicly funded think tank that conducts research on genocide throughout the world. At the same time that the internet became more accessible and advanced into the twenty-first century, allowing the museum to additionally host numerous resources as well as virtual exhibits on its website, other technological advances enabled exhibit expansions and supplementation. By the 2020s, for example, the museum had incorporated digital technology into its Tower of Faces, allowing visitors to learn more about the people included through augmented reality.

During the construction phase of the museum in the early 1990s, a controversy developed over how the Holocaust should be remembered in the exhibitions. Many of the museum’s planners did not want to use photographs and other artifacts that would depict the Jewish people only as victims. Others, however, argued that displaying such artifacts, while horribly graphic, was the only way to ensure an accurate depiction of the Holocaust. Still other critics believed that a museum that did not commemorate the American experience of the Holocaust should not be built on the National Mall. This controversy had no clear resolution, with some exhibits seemingly satisfying different parties.

Into the 2020s, the museum continued to play a role in educating the public about the Holocaust, specifically, as well as maintaining a general awareness of antisemitism. In 2024, following prominent discussions of increased antisemitism in the country following Hamas's attack on Israel in late 2023 and Israel's subsequent war in Gaza, the museum released statements condemning the attack on Israel and calling on college campuses to better protect Jewish students. Many protests of the war in Gaza were occurring on college campuses nationwide. At the same time, debates were ongoing regarding how institutions such as the national museum should address Israel's war in Gaza and the deaths of Palestinians, including many civilians.

Impact

Despite the criticisms and controversy, the museum has been visited by millions of visitors from all over the world, including many foreign leaders and dignitaries, since its opening.

Bibliography

Berenbaum, Michael. The World Must Know: The History of the Holocaust as Told in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Little, Brown, 1993.

Goldstein, Dana, and Marc Tracy. "Holocaust Museums Debate What to Say about the Israel-Hamas War." The New York Times, 3 June 2024, www.nytimes.com/2024/06/03/us/holocaust-museums-israel-hamas-war.html. Accessed 27 June 2024.

"History of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum." Holocaust Encyclopedia, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/history-of-the-united-states-holocaust-memorial-museum. Accessed 27 June 2024.

Linenthal, Edward. Preserving Memory: The Struggle to Create America’s Holocaust Museum. Viking Press, 1995.

"Museum Calls on Colleges and Universities to Address Rising Antisemitism on Campuses." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 22 Apr. 2024, www.ushmm.org/information/press/museum-calls-on-colleges-and-universities-to-address-rising-antisemitism-on. Accessed 27 June 2024.

"Museum Statement on the Attack on Israel." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 8 Oct. 2023, www.ushmm.org/information/press/press-releases/museum-statement-on-the-attack-on-israel. Accessed 27 June 2024.