“Grassroots” holocaust museums: Revealing untold stories

In the past decades, small, non-institutional museums have sprung up in Israel to display overlooked or unrecognized aspects of the Holocaust. These museums, which will be termed “grassroots” Holocaust museums, challenge the hegemonic narrative of Holocaust memory and commemoration that has been ingrained in Israeli society since the establishment of Israel as an independent state in 1948. Following a discussion of the Israeli National museum of the Holocaust, Yad Vashem, the article presents various examples of non-traditional Holocaust museums, such as the “Salonika and Greece Jewry Heritage Center” in Petach Tikva, and the Chamber of the Holocaust (Martef Hashoah) in Jerusalem and questions how they reflect contemporary Israeli society and their impact on Israeli Holocaust commemoration.