The United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum at 25
They believed that it should be situated on the National Mall in Washington DC in order to teach all Americans about this watershed event in human history and to remind them that all societies – even advanced, educated, democratic ones – can be fragile. That the human capacity for depravity - and the dangers of inaction - require ongoing vigilance and a strong sense of personal responsibility to shape the present and future.
Elie Wiesel called the Museum a “living memorial” to the victims that would speak to the future as much as to the past. He hoped the Museum would transform people and that they in turn would work to transform the world.
The effort to build the Museum was long and complicated with many discussions about how to create the architecture and an exhibition that would be worthy of the victims and meaningful to Americans from all walks of life.
As part of the process, the Museum began working closely with Poland – various governments over the years and many professionals at memorial sites, archives and museums. Those relationships were invaluable then and remain so today.
Since the Museum opened in 1993, over 43 million people have visited. About 90% are non-Jews and a third are school groups. Many are foreign visitors to our nation’s capital. Since the lessons of the Holocaust are vital for all of humanity, the Museum began bringing its message to those who cannot visit Washington. This involved, among other things, the creation of traveling exhibitions throughout the US and abroad and an online Holocaust encyclopedia that is now in 16 languages.
It also involved building a foundational structure by creating various centers and institutes:
The National Institute for Holocaust Documentation, which houses the collection of records on the Holocaust, which includes copies of archives from over 50 countries;
Sara J. Bloomfield. All images in this article courtesy of USHMM.
In 1978, US President Jimmy Carter established a commission to study the idea of an American national memorial to the Holocaust and named Holocaust survivor and author Elie Wiesel as its chair. After a year of study, discussion, and visits to Holocaust sites such as Auschwitz-Birkenau, the commission recommended that a memorial alone would be insufficient. What was needed was a memorial museum that would be devoted not only to remembrance but also to education.
Sara J. Bloomfield, USHMM Director