United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Location in Washington, D.C. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (the United States)
Established	April 22, 1993
Location	100 Raoul Wallenberg Place,Southwest, Washington, D.C.
Coordinates	38°53′12″N77°01′57″W
Type	Holocaust museum
Visitors	1.6 million (2016)
Director	Sara J. Bloomfield
Curator	Steven Luckert
Public transit access	Smithsonian
Website	www.ushmm.org

TheUnited States Holocaust Memorial Museum(USHMM) is the United States' official memorial tothe Holocaust.Adjacent to theNational MallinWashington, D.C.,the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust history. It is dedicated to helping leaders and citizens of the world confront hatred, preventgenocide,promote human dignity, and strengthen democracy.

In 2008, the museum had an operating budget of $120.6 million.a staff of about 400 employees, 125 contractors, 650 volunteers, 91 Holocaust survivors, and 175,000 members. It had local offices inNew York City,Boston,Boca Raton,Chicago,Los Angeles,andDallas.

Since its dedication on April 22, 1993, the museum has had nearly 40 million visitors, including more than 10 million school children, 99 heads of state, and more than 3,500 foreign officials from over 211 countries and territories. The museum's visitors came from all over the world, and less than 10 percent are Jewish. In 2008, its website had 25 million visits, from an average of 100 countries daily. Thirty-five percent of these visits were from outside the United States.

The USHMM's collections contain more than 12,750 artifacts, 49 million pages of archival documents, 85,000 historical photographs, a list of over 200,000 registeredsurvivorsand their families, 1,000 hours of archival footage, 93,000 library items, and 9,000 oral history testimonies. It also has teacher fellows in every state in the United States and, since 1994, almost 400 university fellows from 26 countries.

Researchers at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum have documented 42,500ghettosandconcentration campscreated by the Nazis throughout German-controlled areas of Europe from 1933 to 1945.

The museum is located geographically in the same cluster as theSmithsonianmuseums.

History

14th Street entrance of USHMM

On November 1, 1978, PresidentJimmy Carterestablished the President's Commission on the Holocaust, chaired byElie Wiesel,a prominent author, activist, and Holocaust survivor. Its mandate was to investigate the creation and maintenance of a memorial to victims of the Holocaust and an appropriate annual commemoration to them. The mandate was a joint effort of Wiesel and Richard Krieger(the original papers are on display at theJimmy Carter Museum). On September 27, 1979, the Commission presented its report to the President, recommending the establishment of a national Holocaust memorial museum in Washington, D.C., with three main components: a national museum/memorial, an educational foundation, and a Committee on Conscience.

After a unanimous vote by theUnited States Congressin 1980 to establish the museum, the federal government made available 1.9 acres (0.77 ha) of land adjacent to theWashington Monumentfor construction. Under the founding director Richard Krieger, and subsequent director Jeshajahu Weinberg and chairmanMiles Lerman,nearly $190 million was raised from private sources for building design, artifact acquisition, and exhibition creation. In October 1988, PresidentRonald Reaganhelped lay the cornerstone of the building, designed by architectJames Ingo Freed.Dedication ceremonies on April 22, 1993, included speeches by American PresidentBill Clinton,Israeli PresidentChaim Herzog,ChairmanHarvey Meyerhoff,and Elie Wiesel. On April 26, 1993, the museum opened to the general public. Its first visitor was the14th Dalai LamaofTibet.

Attacks

In 2002,a federal jury convicted white supremacists Leo Felton and Erica Chaseof planning to bomb a series of institutions associated with American black and Jewish communities, including the USHMM.

On June 10, 2009, 88-year-oldJames von Brunn,anantisemite,shot Museum Special Police Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns.Special Police Officer Johns and von Brunn were seriously wounded and transported by ambulance to theGeorge Washington University Hospital.Special Police Officer Johns later died of his injuries; he is permanently honored in an official memorial at the USHMM. Von Brunn, who had a previous criminal record, died before the conclusion of his federal criminal trial,inButner federal prisoninNorth Carolina.

Architecture

Designed by the architectJames Ingo FreedofPei Cobb Freed & Partners,in association withFinegold Alexander & Associates,the USHMM is created to be a "resonator of memory". (Born to a Jewish family in Germany, Freed came to the United States at the age of nine in 1939 with his parents, who fled the Nazi regime.) The outside of the building disappears into theneoclassical,Georgian,andmodernarchitecture of Washington, D.C. Upon entering, each architectural feature becomes a new element of allusion to the Holocaust.In designing the building, Freed researched post-World War IIGerman architectureand visited Holocaust sites throughout Europe. The Museum building and the exhibitions within are intended to evoke deception, fear, and solemnity, in contrast to the comfort and grandiosity usually associated with Washington, D.C., public buildings.

Other partners in the construction of the USHMM included Weiskopf & Pickworth,Cosentini AssociatesLLP,Jules Fisher,and Paul Marantz, all from New York City. The structural engineering firm wasSeverud Associates.The Museum's Meyerhoff Theatre and Rubenstein Auditorium were constructed by Jules Fisher Associates of New York City. The Permanent Exhibition was designed byRalph Appelbaum Associates.

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  Raoul WallenbergPlace Entrance withDwight EisenhowerPlaza in the Foreground
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  Bridges in the USHMM. Blue glass etched with names and places lost during the Holocaust.
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  Glass bridge over the Hall of Witness.

Exhibitions

The USHMM houses two exhibitions open continuously since 1993 as well as rotating exhibitions on topics related to the Holocaust andhuman rights.

Hall of Remembrance

Panoramic view of the Hall of Remembrance

The Hall of Remembrance is the USHMM's official memorial to the victims and survivors of the Holocaust. Visitors can light candles and view the eternal flame in the hexagonal hall.

Permanent Exhibition

Using more than 900 artifacts, 70 video monitors, and four theaters showing historic film footage and eyewitness testimonies, the USHMM's Permanent Exhibition is the most visited exhibit at the Museum. Upon entering large industrial elevators on the first floor, visitors are given identification cards, each of which tells the story of a person such as a random victim or survivor of the Holocaust. Upon exiting these elevators on the fourth floor, visitors walk through a chronological history of the Holocaust, starting with the Nazi rise to power led byAdolf Hitler,1933–1939. Topics dealt with includeAryanideology,Kristallnacht,antisemitism,and the American response toNazi Germany.Visitors continue walking to the third floor, where they learn aboutghettosand theFinal Solution– the Nazis's plan for thegenocideof the Jews of Europe – during which the Nazis murdered six million Jews, many ingas chambers.The Permanent Exhibition ends on the second floor with the liberation ofNazi concentration campsbyAlliedforces; it includes a continuously looped film of Holocaust survivor testimony. First-time visitors spend an average of two to three hours in this self-guided exhibition. Due to certain images and subject matter, it is recommended for visitors 11 years of age and older.

To enter the Permanent Exhibition between March and August, visitors must acquire free timed passes from the Museum on the day of the visit, or online for a service fee.

Remember the Children: Daniel's Story

Remember the Children: Daniel's Storyis an exhibition designed to explain the Holocaust to elementary and middle school children. Opened in 1993, it follows true stories about children during the Holocaust. Daniel is named after the son of Isaiah Kuperstein, who was the original curator of the exhibit. He worked together with Ann Lewin and Stan Woodward to create the exhibit. Because of its popularity with families, it is still open to the public today.

Stephen Tyrone Johns Memorial

In October 2009, the USHMM unveiled a memorial plaque in honor of Special Police Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns.In response to the outpouring of grief and support after the shooting on June 10, 2009, it has also established theStephen Tyrone Johns Summer Youth Leadership Program.Each year, 50 outstanding young people from the Washington, D.C. area will be invited to the USHMM to learn about the Holocaust in honor of Johns' memory.

Special exhibitions

Notable special exhibitions have includedA Dangerous Lie:The Protocols of the Elders of Zion(2006).

Permanent collection

The Museum's holdings included art, books, pamphlets, advertisements, maps, film and video historical footage, audio and video oral testimonies, music and sound recordings, furnishings, architectural fragments, models, machinery, tools, microfilm and microfiche of government documents and other official records, personal effects, personal papers, photographs, photo albums, and textiles. This information can be accessed through online databases or by visiting the USHMM. Researchers from all over the world come to the USHMM Library and Archives and theBenjamin and Vladka Meed Registry of Holocaust Survivors.

Museum gallery

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  "State of Deception"Nazi propagandaexhibition at the museum in 2011
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  (Interior) AnA2 railcar,one of several types used asHolocaust trainsby Nazi Germany to transportvictims.
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  Tower of Faces
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  This uniform on display was worn by prisoners in Nazi concentration camps.
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  (Exterior) A2 railcar owned byDeutsche Reichsbahnand donated by theChief Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nationin 1991.
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  Photo Wall at the Holocaust Memorial Museum

Financial administration

The USHMM operates on a mixed federal and private revenue budget. For the 2014–2015 fiscal year, the museum reported total revenues of $133.4 million; $81.9 million and $51.4 million from private and public sources, respectively. Nearly the entirety of private funds come from donations. Expenses totaled of $104.6 million, with a total of $53.5 million used to pay 421 employees.Net assets tallied $436.1 million as of September 30, 2015, of which $319.1 million is classified as long-term investments, including the museum's endowment.

Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies

In 1998, the museum established the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies (CAHS). Working with the Academic Committee of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, the CAHS supports research projects and publications about the Holocaust (including a partnership withOxford University Pressto publish the scholarly journalHolocaust and Genocide Studies), helps make accessible collections of Holocaust-related archival material, supports fellowship opportunities for pre- and post- doctoral researchers, and hosts seminars, summer research workshops for academics, conferences, lectures, and symposia. The CAHS's Visiting Scholars Program and other events have made the USHMM one of the world's principal venues for Holocaust scholarship.

The slogan"Arbeit Macht Frei"displayed at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.

Committee on Conscience

The Museum contains the offices of the Committee on Conscience (CoC), a jointUnited States governmentand privately fundedthink tank,which by presidential mandate engages in global human rights research. Using theConvention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,approved by theUnited Nationsin 1948 and ratified by the United States in 1988, the CoC has established itself as a leading non-partisan commenter on theDarfur Genocide,as well as the war-torn region ofChechnyainRussia,a zone that the CoC believes could produce genocidal atrocities. The CoC does not have policy-making powers and serves solely as an advisory institution to the American and other governments.

National Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust

Main article:Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust

While standing inside The Hall of Remembrance, located within the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, a volunteer reads the names of Holocaust victims during theDays of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust.

In addition to coordinating the National Civic Commemoration, ceremonies and educational programs during the week of the Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust (DRVH) were regularly held throughout the country, sponsored by Governors, Mayors, veterans groups, religious groups, and military ships and stations throughout the world. Each year, the USHMM designated a special theme for DRVH observances, and prepares materials available at no charge to support observances and programs throughout the nation, and in the United States military. Days of Remembrance themes have included:

• 2014 – Confronting the Holocaust: American Responses
• 2013 – Never Again: Heeding the Warning Signs
• 2012 – Choosing to Act: Stories of Rescue
• 2011 – Justice and Accountability in the Face of Genocide: What Have We Learned?
• 2010 – Stories of Freedom: What You Do Matters
• 2009 – Never Again: What You Do Matters
• 2008 – Do Not Stand Alone: Remembering Kristallnacht
• 2007 – Children in Crisis: Voices From the Holocaust
• 2006 – Legacies of Justice
• 2005 – From Liberation to the Pursuit of Justice
• 2004 – For Justice and Humanity
• 2003 – For Your Freedom and Ours
• 2002 – Memories of Courage
• 2001 – Remembering the Past for the Sake of the Future

National Institute for Holocaust Education

The USHMM conducted several programs devoted to improving Holocaust education. TheArthur and Rochelle Belfer Conference for Teachers,conducted in Washington, D.C., attracted around 200 middle school and secondary teachers from around the United States each year. The Education Division offered workshops around the United States for teachers to learn about the Holocaust, to participate in the Museum Teacher Fellowship Program (MTFP), and to join a national corps of educators who served as leaders in Holocaust education in their schools, communities, and professional organizations. Some MTFP participants also participated in the Regional Education Corps, an initiative to implement Holocaust education on a national level.

Since 1999, the USHMM also provided public service professionals, including law enforcement officers, military personnel, civil servants, and federal judges with ethics lessons based in Holocaust history. In partnership with theAnti-Defamation League,more than 21,000 law enforcement officers from worldwide and local law enforcement agencies such as theFBIand local police departments have been trained to act in a professional and democratic manner.

Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos

Replica of Auschwitz sign "Arbeit Macht Frei"which means" work will set you free "

TheEncyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945is a seven-part encyclopedia series that explores the history of theconcentration campsand the ghettos in German-occupied Europe during theNazi era.The series is produced by the USHMM and published by theIndiana University Press.The work on the series began in 2000 by the researchers at the USHMM'sCenter for Advanced Holocaust Studies.Its general editor and project directory is the American historianGeoffrey P. Megargee.As of 2017, two volumes have been issued, with the third being planned for 2018.

Volume I covers the early camps that theSAandSSset up in the first year of the Nazi regime, and the camps later run by theSS Economic Administration Main Officeand their numerous sub-camps. The volume contains 1,100 entries written by 150 contributors. The bulk of the volume is dedicated to cataloguing the camps, including locations, duration of operation, purpose, perpetrators and victims.Volume II is dedicated to the ghettos in German-occupied Eastern Europe and was published in 2012.

Outreach

A dedication plaque outside the Museum

Through its online exhibitions,the Museum published theHolocaust Encyclopedia—an online, multilingual encyclopedia detailing the events surrounding the Holocaust.It was published in all six of theofficial languages of the United Nations—Arabic,Mandarin,English,French,Russian,andSpanish,as well as inGreek,Portuguese,Persian,Turkish,andUrdu.It contained thousands of entries and includes copies of the identification card profiles that visitors receive at the Permanent Exhibition.The encyclopedia is organized by the following topics:

• The Third Reich
• The Holocaust
• Victims of the Nazi Era
• Rescue and Resistance
• After the Holocaust
• Additional Resources

It includes a number of articles and other resources:

• Articles (840)
• Identity cards of victims (600)
• Artifacts (140)
• Documents (35)
• Historical film footage (160)
• Oral histories (550)
• Maps (25)
• Music (11)
• Photographs (1300)

Holocaust Encyclopediamaterials and other resources are available in multiple languages: Arabic, Greek, Spanish, French, Italian, Korean, Russian, Urdu, Farsi, Bahasa Indonesia, Portuguese, Turkish, and Chinese.

It includes a learning site for students. Organized by theme, the site uses text, photographs, maps, artifacts, and personal histories to provide an overview of the Holocaust.

The USHMM had partnered withApple Inc.to publish freepodcastsoniTunesabout the Holocaust, antisemitism, and genocide prevention.It also had its own channel onYouTube,an official account onFacebook,aTwitterpage,and an e-mail newsletter service.

The Genocide Prevention Mapping Initiative was a collaboration between the USHMM andGoogle Earth.It sought to collect, share, and visually present to the world critical information on emerging crises that may lead to genocide or relatedcrimes against humanity.While this initiative focused on theDarfur Conflict,the Museum wishes to broaden its scope to all human rights violations. The USHMM wanted to build an interactive "global crisis map" to share and understand information quickly, to "see the situation" when dealing with human rights abuses, enabling more effective prevention and response by the world.

Elie Wiesel Award

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Award, established in 2011, "recognizes internationally prominent individuals whose actions have advanced the Museum’s vision of a world where people confront hatred, prevent genocide, and promote human dignity."It has been renamed the Elie Wiesel Award in honor of its first recipient. Winners include:

• 2011:Elie Wiesel
• 2012:Aung San Suu Kyi(rescinded in 2018 due to theongoing Rohingya genocide)
• 2013:Władysław Bartoszewskiand the Veterans of World War II
• 2014: Lieutenant-GeneralRoméo Dallaire
• 2015: JudgeThomas BuergenthalandBenjamin Ferencz
• 2016: US RepresentativeJohn Lewis
• 2017: German ChancellorAngela Merkel
• 2018: AllHolocaustsurvivors
• 2019:Serge and Beate KlarsfeldandSyria Civil Defense
• 2020:Maziar Bahari
• 2021:Ambassador Stewart EizenstatandDOJ Office of Special Investigations

Governance

The museum is overseen by the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, which includes 55 private citizens appointed by thePresident of the United States,five members of theUnited States Senate,and five members of theHouse of Representatives,and three ex-officio members from the Departments ofState,Education,and theInterior.

Since the museum opened, the council has been led by the following officers:

• Chairman Elie Wiesel; 1980–1986
• ChairmanHarvey M. Meyerhoff;1987–1993
• ChairmanMiles Lermanand Vice Chairman Ruth B. Mandel, appointed by PresidentBill Clintonin 1993; through 2000
• Chairman RabbiIrving Greenberg,appointed by President Clinton in 2000; through 2002
• Chairman Fred S. Zeidman, appointed by PresidentGeorge W. Bushin 2002; and Vice Chairman Joel M. Geiderman, appointed by President Bush in 2005; through 2010
• Chairman Tom A. Bernstein; 2010–2017
• Chairman Howard M. Lorber; 2017–2022
• Chairman Stuart Eizenstat, 2022–present

The council has appointed the following as directors of the museum:

• Jeshajahu Weinberg, 1987–94
• Walter Reich,1995–98
• Sara J. Bloomfield,1999–present

Controversy

The museum was criticized for refusal to address alleged incidents of genocide in non-Jewish contexts, such as theSyrian civil war.In June 2019, the USHMM took part in a public debate about the inappropriate use of Holocaust-related terminology after U.S. RepresentativeAlexandria Ocasio-Cortezcalled the detention camps along the southern U.S. border "concentration camps", and used the phrase "Never Again".The USHMM published a statement declaring that it "unequivocallyrejects efforts to create analogies between the Holocaust and other events,whether historical or contemporary. "A group of historians and scholars responded with an open letter portraying the stance of the museum as "a radical position that is far removed from mainstream scholarship on the Holocaust and genocide." They claimed it "made learning from the past almost impossible."

See also

• Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
• Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service
• Culture of Remembrance
• Ghetto Fighters' House
• Holocaust Memorial Center
• Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center
• List of Holocaust memorials and museums
• List of museums in Washington, D.C.
• Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
• Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre
• POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews
• Stephen Roth Institute
• Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research
• The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme
• Raoul Wallenberg
• Simon Wiesenthal Center
• Yad Vashem
• Yom HaShoah

Further reading

• Belau, L. M. 1998. "Viewing the Impossible: The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum". Reference Librarian. (61/62): 15–22.
• Berenbaum, Michael, and Arnold Kramer. 2006. The world must know: the history of the Holocaust as told in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Washington, D.C.: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
• Charny, Israel W. (10 April 2000)."Manuscript rejection".Letter to Michael Gelb. Jerusalem, Israel: Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide.Retrieved8 February2024.
• Freed, James Ingo. 1990. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: what can it be? Washington, D.C.: U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council.
• Hasian, Jr, Marouf. 2004. "Remembering and forgetting the" Final Solution ": a rhetorical pilgrimage through the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum". Critical Studies in Media Communication. 21 (1): 64–92.
• Linenthal, Edward Tabor.1995. Preserving memory: the struggle to create America's Holocaust Museum. New York: Viking.
• Pieper, Katrin. 2006. Die Musealisierung des Holocaust: das Jüdische Museum Berlin und das U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C.: ein Vergleich. Europäische Geschichtsdarstellungen, Bd. 9. Köln: Böhlau.
• Strand, J. 1993. "Jeshajahu Weinberg of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum". Museum News – Washington. 72 (2): 40.
• Timothy, Dallen J. 2007. Managing heritage and cultural tourism resources: critical essays. Critical essays, v. 1. Aldershot, Hants, England: Ashgate.
• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 2001. Teaching about the Holocaust: a resource book for educators. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 2007. You are my witnesses: selected quotations at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Washington, D.C.: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
• Weinberg, Jeshajahu, and Rina Elieli. 1995. The Holocaust Museum in Washington. New York, N.Y.: Rizzoli International Publications.
• Young, James E, and John R Gillis. 1996. "The Texture of Memory: Holocaust Memorials and Meaning". The Journal of Modern History. 68 (2): 427.

External links

• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum at Google Cultural Institute
• YouTube Channel – USHMM
• Facebook – United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
• Twitter – U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
• DCinsiderGuide – U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection at the American Jewish Historical Society
• Holocaust Encyclopedia in English