Holocaust Museums

Museums, including Holocaust museums, display artifacts and other aspects of material culture in order to convey historical events in a manner that allows the visitor to experience them at various levels. The combination of didactic and narrative exhibits generates a sense of identification and empathy with the victims and offers visitors an emotional and even spiritual experience. Thus, Holocaust museums are located in an intermediate zone between the academic establishment and the popular media. Holocaust museums form an integral institution for forming and conveying Holocaust memory. Unavoidably, they are also shaped by the political cultures of their home countries. This chapter examines how different Holocaust museums have been constructed in different times and places to serve both a didactic function for Holocaust education and a political function in shaping contemporary culture.