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  Location in Washington, D.C. Show map of Central Washington, D.C. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (the United States) Show map of the United States | |
| Established | April 22, 1993 |
|---|---|
| Location | 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place,Southwest,Washington, D.C. |
| Coordinates | 38°53′12″N77°01′57″W / 38.88667°N 77.03250°W /38.88667; -77.03250 |
| Type | Holocaust museum |
| Visitors | 1.6 million (2016)[1] |
| Director | Sara J. Bloomfield |
| Curator | Steven Luckert |
| Public transit access |  Smithsonian |
| Website | www |
TheUnited States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is the United States' official memorial tothe Holocaust, dedicated to the documentation, study, and interpretation of the Holocaust. Opened in 1993, the museum explores the Holocaust through permanent and traveling exhibitions, educational programs, survivor testimonies and archival collections. The USHMM was created to help leaders and citizens of the world confront hatred, preventgenocide, promote human dignity, and strengthen democracy.[2]
In 2008, the museum had an operating budget of $120.6 million,[3] a staff of about 400 employees, 125 contractors, 650 volunteers, 91 Holocaust survivors, and 175,000 members. It has local offices inNew York City,Boston,Boca Raton,Chicago,Los Angeles, andDallas.[4]
Since its dedication on April 22, 1993, the museum has had nearly 40 million visitors, including more than 10 million school children, 120 heads of state, and more than 3,500 foreign officials from over 132 countries and territories.[5] The museum's visitors came from all over the world, and less than 10 percent are Jewish. In 2024, its website had 33.9 million visits from 243 countries and territories. Fifty-seven percent of these visits were from outside the United States.[5]
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 registeredsurvivors and their families, 1,000 hours of archival footage, 93,000 library items, and 9,000 oral history testimonies. Currently, USHMM's Teacher Fellowship Program has 268 fellows representing 49 states in the United States, the District of Colombia, and 11 countries.[5] Since 1994, the museum has had almost 400 university fellows from 26 countries.[4]
Researchers at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum have documented 42,500ghettos andconcentration camps created by the Nazis throughout German-controlled areas of Europe from 1933 to 1945.[6]
The museum is located geographically in the same cluster as theSmithsonian museums.
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On November 1, 1978, PresidentJimmy Carter established the President's Commission on the Holocaust, chaired byElie Wiesel, a prominent author, activist, and Holocaust survivor.[8] 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[9] (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.[10]
After a unanimous vote by theUnited States Congress in 1980 to establish the museum,[11] the federal government made available 1.9 acres (0.77 ha) of land adjacent to theWashington Monument for construction. Under the founding director Richard Krieger, 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 Reagan helped lay the cornerstone of the building, designed by architectJames Ingo Freed.[12] Dedication ceremonies on April 22, 1993, included speeches by American PresidentBill Clinton, Israeli PresidentChaim Herzog, ChairmanHarvey Meyerhoff, and Elie Wiesel.[13] On April 26, 1993, the museum opened to the general public. Its first visitor was the14th Dalai Lama ofTibet.[14]
In 2002,a federal jury convicted white supremacists Leo Felton and Erica Chase of planning to bomb a series of institutions associated with American Black and Jewish communities, including the USHMM.[15]
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,[16] inButner federal prison inNorth Carolina.[17]
The USHMM houses two exhibitions open continuously since 1993 as well as rotating exhibitions on topics related to the Holocaust andhuman rights.
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.[18]
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.[19] 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 during 1933 to 1939. Topics dealt with includeAryan ideology,Kristallnacht,antisemitism, and the American response toNazi Germany. Visitors continue walking to the third floor, where they learn aboutghettos and theFinal Solution – the Nazis's plan for thegenocide of 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 camps byAllied forces; it includes a continuously looped film of Holocaust survivor testimony.[20] 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.[19]
Remember the Children: Daniel's Story is an exhibition designed to explain the Holocaust to elementary and middle school children.[13] 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.[21][22][23]
In October 2009, the USHMM unveiled a memorial plaque in honor of Special Police Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns.[24][25][26] 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.[27][better source needed]
A Dangerous Lie: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was a special exhibition about the 1903 Russianantisemitic canard,The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.[28] The exhibit was curated by Daniel Greene.[29][30][31]
The exhibit explained that in the early 20th century and duringHitler's rise to power in Germany, it was widely accepted that theProtocols documented an actual conspiracy by a small cabal of Jews to control the world for nefarious purposes, and that government and media in some countries continue to promote theProtocols as proof that such a Jewish conspiracy to control the world exists.[31] It details the manner in whichHenry Ford was responsible for popularizing the fakeProtocols in his newspaper,The Dearborn Independent.[32]
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.[13] 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.[33] In March 2024, the museum announced that it acquired the Centropa collection, a collection that contains rare testimonies of Holocaust survivors living in post-war communist countries.[34]
![(Exterior) A2 railcar owned by Deutsche Reichsbahn and donated by the Chief Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation in 1991[35][36]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aRailroad_Car.jpg)
Designed by the architectJames Ingo Freed ofPei 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.[37] The outside of the building disappears into theneoclassical,Georgian, andmodern architecture of Washington, D.C. Upon entering, each architectural feature becomes a new element of allusion to the Holocaust.[38] In designing the building, Freed researched post-World War IIGerman architecture and 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.[39]
Other partners in the construction of the USHMM included Weiskopf & Pickworth,Cosentini Associates LLP,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.[40]
The USHMM is primarily funded by charitable contributions and government grants. For the 2021–2022 fiscal year, the museum reported total revenues of $184.7 million and total expenses of $143.1 million.[41] Net assets totaled $696.9 million as of September 30, 2022.[41]
In 1998, the museum established the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies (CAHS).[13] 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 Press to 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.[42]
The Museum contains the offices of the Committee on Conscience (CoC), a jointUnited States government and 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 Nations in 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 ofChechnya inRussia, 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.[43]
In addition to coordinating the National Civic Commemoration, events are held during the week of the Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust on a theme designated each year by the USHMM.
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.[44]
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 theFBI and local police departments have been trained to act in a professional and democratic manner.[45]
TheEncyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945 is a seven-part encyclopedia series that explores the history of theconcentration camps and 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.[46]
Volume I covers the early camps that theSA andSS set up in the first year of the Nazi regime, and the camps later run by theSS Economic Administration Main Office and 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.[47] Volume II is dedicated to the ghettos in German-occupied Eastern Europe and was published in 2012.[48] In some cases, archival material now housed at the Center has allowed the post-mortem reconstruction of considerable achievements, such as the work of Lodz ghetto artistMelania Fogelbaum and others, which would otherwise have been lost to Nazi extermination and total war terror.
Through its online exhibitions,[49] the Museum published theHolocaust Encyclopedia—an online, multilingual encyclopedia detailing the events surrounding the Holocaust.[50] It is 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 contains thousands of entries and includes copies of the identification card profiles that visitors receive at the Permanent Exhibition.[51]
The Genocide Prevention Mapping Initiative is a collaboration between the USHMM andGoogle Earth. It seeks to collect, share, and visually present to the world critical information on emerging crises that may lead to genocide or relatedcrimes against humanity.[52]
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."[53] It has been renamed the Elie Wiesel Award in honor of its first recipient. Winners include:
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.[59][60]
Since being established by an act ofCongress in 1980,[60] the council has been led by the following officers.[59]
The council has appointed the following as directors of the museum:[59]
The museum was criticized for refusal to address alleged incidents of genocide in non-Jewish contexts, such as theSyrian civil war.[68][69] In June 2019, the USHMM took part in a public debate about the inappropriate use of Holocaust-related terminology after U.S. RepresentativeAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez called the detention camps along theMexico–United States border "concentration camps", and used the phrase "Never Again".[70] The USHMM published a statement declaring that it "unequivocallyrejects efforts to create analogies between the Holocaust and other events, whether historical or contemporary."[71] 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."[72]
The USHMM received sharp criticism fromNorman Finkelstein, who asked why the victims of the Holocaust have a national museum but not the victims ofslavery in the U.S. or theNative American genocide. He also argued that the non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust—especially the victims of theRomani Holocaust, orPorajmos—got only token recognition in the museum. In his 2000 bookThe Holocaust Industry, Finkelstein argued that the museum's leadership is committed to political support of the Israeli state, pointing to its praise of pro-Zionist literature and its condemnation of anti-Zionist literature.[73][74]
