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HIST 471: A Guide to Holocaust Memory

This guide aids in providing resources that will help students and researchers investigate public engagement with the Holocaust.

Holocaust Memorials and Museums

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Located on the National Mall in Washington D.C., the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's collection inspires visitors to question and confront hatred and prevent genocide. The voices of those lost during the Holocaust and those that survived speak loudly about the fragility of freedom and the need to preserve democratic values. Antisemitism and Holocaust denial remain, as well as threats of genocide in various parts of the world, so the need for this museum is stronger than ever.   

United states Holocaust Memorial Museums

Located on the National Mall in Washington D.C., the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's collection inspires visitors to question and confront hatred and prevent genocide. The voices of those lost during the Holocaust and those that survived speak loudly about the fragility of freedom and the need to preserve democratic values. Antisemitism and Holocaust denial remain, as well as threats of genocide in various parts of the world, so the need for this museum is stronger than ever.   

Memorial to murdered Jews in Berlin

The Memorial to murdered Jews in Berlin opened 60 years after the end of the Holocaust. Visitors have made many interpretations about the design, noting that it resembles a large grave yard, but the architect, Peter Eisenman, has stated: 

"The enormity and scale of the horror of the Holocaust is such that any attempt to represent it by traditional means is inevitably inadequate ... Our memorial attempts to present a new idea of memory as distinct from nostalgia ... We can only know the past today through a manifestation in the present."

 

 

Holocaust Memorials and Museums Resources

Memorials and Museums

  • The Art of Memory: Holocaust Memorials in History. Edited by James E. Young and the Jewish Museum. New York, NY: Prestel, 1994.
  • Young, James Edward. The Texture of Memory: Holocaust Memorials and Meaning. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1993.
  • Marcuse, Harold. “Holocaust Memorials: The Emergence of a Genre.” The American Historical Review 115, no. 1 (February 2010): 53-89.
  • Young, James E. "Germany's Holocaust Memorial Problem—and Mine." The Public Historian 24, no.4 (2002): 65-80.
  • Greater Miami Jewish Federation. “History of the Holocaust Memorial.” Holocaust Memorial Miami Beach. Accessed November 29, 2016. https://holocaustmemorialmiamibeach.org/about/history/.
  • New England Holocaust Memorial Advisory Committee. “The Memorial.” The New England Holocaust Memorial: A Beacon of Memory and Hope. Accessed November 29, 2016. https://www.nehm.org/the-memorial/.

Louisiana and the Holocaust

New Orleans Holocaust Memorial at Woldenburg Park

Woldenberg Park was built in 1984 for the New Orleans World's Fair. New Orleans followed the trend of many Western cities with global appeal to engage in erecting a memorial of one of the greatest moral horror of the last century. The memorial's message, "Never Again," looks toward the idea of cultural harmony.