The museum is dedicated to remembering the Holocaust by displaying oral histories, artifacts, photos, documents, and film footage from the Holocaust experience, and to preserve the memory of the millions who were persecuted and murdered by the Nazis between 1933 and 1945. It also provides a detailed education on what transpired, to increase awareness and understanding, and hopefully help keep any similar kind of occurrence from happening again.
In November 1978, President Jimmy Carter established a Commission on the Holocaust, charged with issuing a report on the state of Holocaust remembrance and education in the U.S. Its findings included four main recommendations:
- Establish a living memorial to honor victims and survivors and to ensure the lessons from the tragedy be taught in perpetuity
- Create an educational foundation to stimulate and support research in the teaching of the Holocaust
- Establish a Committee of Conscience to collect information and alert the national conscience on reports of actual or potential outbreaks of genocide throughout the world
- Initiate a National Day of Remembrance of Victims to be held annually
A year later President Carter signed Public Law 96-388, creating the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council. Groundbreaking for the museum took place in 1985, and in 1988 the cornerstone was laid, with President Reagan speaking at the ceremony. Construction was completed in 1993. Speakers at the dedication ceremony included President Clinton, Chaim Herzog, and Elie Wiesel. The museum opened to the public on April 26, 1993, with the Dalai Lama as the first visitor.
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is a multifaceted entity that broadens public knowledge about the Holocaust through a combination of exhibits, programs, archives, artifacts, collections, publications, a library, research, preservation, commemoration, training, and global outreach. The museum houses a permanent exhibition that occupies 36,000 square feet on three floors and presents a narrative history using 4 theaters, 70 video monitors, and 900 artifacts that encompass a self-guided tour visitors can take at their own pace. Additionally, the museum Web site displays on-line exhibitions, ranging from Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals to The History behind the Movie The Pianist, which is set in Holocaust-era Warsaw. Since 1991, the museum has presented traveling exhibitions that have so far been to more than one hundred cities and thirty-five states, covering topics from the 1936 Nazi Olympics in Berlin to a look at how Nazi Germany carried on a campaign to “cleanse” German society of people viewed as biological threats to the nation’s health.
There are also live programs at the museum and around the country put on by the museum, ranging from conversations with Holocaust survivors and liberators to lectures by experts on genocide prevention. Among the collections, archives, artifacts, and publications in the museum are personal effects and various other items representing the lives of victims—advertisements, armbands, clothing, correspondence, dolls, drawings, jewelry, journals, machinery, musical recordings and instruments, pictures, and sculptures. Additionally, a training and outreach division organizes conferences with middle- and high-school teachers around the country, and shares methods and strategies for presenting Holocaust topics to students. There is also a program specifically designed for Catholic educators, as well as a curriculum devised for law enforcement officers, to help them draw lessons from Holocaust history. Visits are also arranged for incoming West Point and Naval Academy cadets as part of their studies about the role of the military in protecting a democratic society.
From the Web Site for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Community Partnerships/What does the Holocaust Have to do with Me?
Electronic Resources, on-site access only
Educational Programs and Resources
Holocaust Museum on-line Encyclopedia
Office of Volunteer and Intern Services
Podcasts & Blogs, Genocide Prevention
Press Releases on the Museum In The News
State Profiles on Holocaust Education
Survivor Registry Names Research
About the International Tracing Service Archive
If you’re looking for a particular quote you saw in the museum
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum FY 2013 President’s Budget Request (pdf) includes the following outline of expenses:
Salaries & Expenses $48,109,000
Repair/Rehabilitation $1,900,000
Outreach Initiatives $1,264,000
Equipment Replacement $515,000
Total $51,788,000
The report also provides this breakdown of costs organized by the Museum’s organizational units:
Protect and Strengthen the Core and Impact of the Living Memorial
Facilities Operations $11,642,000
Security $9,770,000
Collections $5,665,000
Information Technology $4,615,000
Education & Exhibitions $3,237,000
Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies $1,957,000
Repair & Rehabilitation $1,900,000
Museum Services $1,571,000
Outreach Initiatives $1,264,000
Equipment Replacement Program (3-year funds) $515,000
Secure the Future of the Memorial Museum
Financial Management & Human Resources $5,943,000
Executive Areas $3,709,000
Total $51,788,000
Security Guard Killed by White Supremacist at Holocaust Museum
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum erupted in violence on June 10, 2009, when an elderly white supremacist opened fire at the museum’s front entrance, killing an African-American security guard.
James Wenneker von Brunn, 88, carried a rifle as he approached the building. When security guard Stephen Tyrone Johns, 39, opened the door for the visitor, von Brunn shot and fatally wounded him. Two other guards shot von Brunn, who was eventually held in a prison hospital in Butner, North Carolina, while awaiting trial.
Von Brunn was charged with first-degree murder and firearms violations. But he never stood trial because he died in the prison hospital the following January. He reportedly had been suffering from chronic congestive heart failure, sepsis, and other health problems. A Holocaust denier, von Brunn had been arrested and convicted for entering a federal building with various weapons in 1981, when he attempted to arrest the entire Federal Reserve Board of Governors on grounds of treason.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Shooting (Wikipedia)
James Von Brunn Dead: Holocaust Museum Shooter Died In Hospital (by Devlin Barrett, Associated Press)
Controversy Impacting Current Operation
The International Tracing Service (ITS), created in 1946 and located in the small German town of Bad Arolsen, is devoted to finding people lost to family and friends during World War II. The ITS archives include more than 50 million pages and 150 million digital images, with references to 17.5 million people, on topics from transportation lists to Gestapo orders to slave labor booklets. Much of the information it holds was hidden from the public for more than 50 years. In August 2007, after a long period of international outcry, the ITS began transferring digital copies to the Holocaust museums in Washington D.C., Israel, and Warsaw. In mid-January 2008, the U.S. Holocaust Museum began making these files available to the public, either by allowing people to come in to search through them, or by having them request information by phone, e-mail, or fax. Currently ITS maintains a Web site that offers a Search function for researching information. However, the online inventory provides only a summary of the contents of the archive, and not an in-depth view of all the items in each collection. Archiving and cataloging is ongoing.
Some Survivor Groups Talk of Confronting Shapiro at USHMM Closed Door Briefing (by Edwin Black, Cutting Edge)
Survivors Outraged at Holocaust Museum over Bad Arolsen (by Edwin Black, History News Network)
Holocaust survivors, relatives unlock wartime secrets through International Tracing Service database (by Amanda Marrazzo, Chicago Tribune)
Fred Zeidman
Fred S. Zeidman, who was appointed chairman by President George W. Bush in 2002, grew up in Wharton, Texas, and received a BS degree in finance from Washington University in St. Louis in 1968 and an MBA from New York University in 1970. Houston-based, he began his career in the Corporate Finance Department of Dean Witter. Later he served as Vice President of Alliance Business Investment Company; Chairman of the Board of Unibar Corporation; Chairman of the Board and President of Parking Inc; President and Chief Operating Officer of Service Enterprise; President of Enterprise Capital; President of Interpak Terminals; Chief Executive Officer and Director of InterSystems; Chairman of the Board of Seitel; Chairman of Turnaround Partners; Founder of Houston Venture Capital Association; Managing Partner of WoodRock & Company; Chairman of the Southwest Region Anti-Defamation League; Vice President and Director of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs; and Vice Chairman of the Board of Regents, Texas Southern University. In 2005, he was appointed Senior Director of Governmental Affairs for Greenberg Traurig, where he is still on staff as a lobbyist. Zeidman is also is on the Jewish National Fund’s Board of Directors and Executive Committee; the Executive Committee of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC); and he is a National Board Member of Development Corporation for Israel; and he is the Texas State Chairman of Israel Bonds. In April 2006, President Bush named Zeidman’s son, Jay, White House Liaison to the Jewish Community. He was 22 at the time. In January 2007, John McCain engaged Jay Zeidman to help with Jewish Outreach in his presidential campaign.
Fred S. Zeidman is an active campaigner for the Republican Party. He was vice chairman of the Dole-Kemp Presidential Campaign in Harris County, Texas, in 1992. In 2000, he earned Bush Pioneer status for his fundraising feats for the Bush/Cheney campaign and in 2004 he moved up to Bush Ranger. He was also co-chairman of Victory ’04 Florida Jewish Outreach/Bush-Cheney ’04. Zeidman is currently vice chairman of the Republican Jewish Coalition; co-chair of the Finance Committee of the Republican Party of Harris County; and he serves on the Finance Committee of the Republican Party of Texas. Zeidman also contributed to the 2008 presidential campaign of Rudy Giuliani.
Who Is Fred Zeidman and Why Should You Care? (blog, North Texas Liberal)
Walter Reich, removed in 1998
Holocaust Museum Ousts Director (by Marc Fisher, Washington Post)
Chairman Rabbi Irving Greenberg attacked for recommending a Bill Clinton pardon for Marc Rich.
Holocaust Museum Chief Stumbles Into Flap Over Pardon of Scofflaw Rich (by Stephen Schwartz, Forward)
- Table of Contents
- Overview
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- What it Does
- Where Does the Money Go
- Controversies
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