During the Second World War, the Nazis and their collaborators systematically murdered six million Jews in a horrific event known as the Holocaust. The Imperial War Museum London opened a ‘Holocaust Gallery’ in October 2021, and it contrasts previous exhibitions by presenting individuals as identifiable and ordinary people. The exhibition aims to provide a deeper understanding of the Holocaust by enabling the visitors to relate with the individuals portrayed. Museums have typically struggled to portray the sheer extent of the Holocaust within their displays, yet the Imperial War Museum’s new exhibition displays a new, more interactive narrative. This exhibition diverts from the concept of ‘mass victimhood’ by individualising the narratives of each victim portrayed.
In historiography, perpetrators have generally had responsibility shifted off of them as they were regarded as having no agency. In an interesting contrast, this exhibition represents perpetrators as individuals responsible for mass murder who could have chosen to resist. By highlighting non-victimhood narratives, the lives of ordinary people within the exhibitions are reflective of a change in displaying the Holocaust in twenty first century museums.
Jewish life remains at the centre of this exhibition. The IWM maintains this by placing names of individuals next to their photographs and personal possessions. The removal of anonymity and mass victimhood represents the direct impacts of the Holocaust in a striking manner. An example of the exhibition’s attempt to divert from ‘mass victimhood’ is the image of Anita Lasker, which highlights the normality of Jewish life preceding the Holocaust. Anita’s image is printed on a glass panel, thus allowing the visitor to foster eye contact with her. This interactive portrayal of Anita humanises her.
To delve a little deeper into the portrayal of Anita, the exhibition reveals some personal information about her. We can find out that she lived with her parents and two older sisters, that her family only spoke French on Sundays, and that they all enjoyed playing chess. Portrayals such as this one makes the victims relatable, and makes the visitor aware of how atrocious the Holocaust was, as it took life away from normal every day citizens. This approach from the IWM contrasts that of the USA Holocaust Memorial Museum where scholars have argued the‘faces of Holocaust victims in the exhibition are shattering in the power of perpetrators.’ A focus on the life of Anita and other individuals before the Holocaust humanises the vistims, rather than portraying them as a mass group of people whom we instantly detach ourselves from.
In a similar manner to the portrayal of Anita, rather than depicting acts of perpetration, the first section of the IWMs new Holocaust Gallery exhibits Jewish family photographs. This is another example of how this exhibition celebrates Jewish culture. Using family photographs is an effective method in emotionally impacting the visitor, as it creates the realisation that the victims could have been our own relative. Personal photographs confront visitors with the truth due to the humanisation of the pictured individuals which evokes an emotional reaction from the viewer. Placing images of individuals on eye level glass panels adds another level of dimension, thus making the interaction between the individual and the visitor somewhat interactive. Focusing on the perpetrator does not give any agency to the victims, yet an exhibition such as that at the IWM gives individuals agency and respect by allowing their stories to be told. This exhibition displays individuals in a way in which they would want to be remembered.
As mentioned above, the prominence of identity in this exhibition makes it interactive, and submerges the visitor into the reality of Holocaust atrocities. The further one walks through the exhibition, the more one is confronted by the horror of persecution and victimisation. Particularly interesting is the use of lighting throughout the exhibition, as rather than following the pattern of using dark rooms, the stories of victims are told in brightly lit rooms as a way of re-examining and ‘bringing light’ to aspects of the Holocaust that were misunderstood. Regarding physical objects retrieved from concentration camps, this exhibition has a small soundproof section which explains the horrific stories tied to the personal possessions. In a similar manner to the glass photographs, this section removes victims from ‘mass victimhood’, by presenting them as individual human beings who had specific interests and passions. This curation strategy contrasts the traditional and infamous displaying of mass amounts of shoes. Whilst such methods do convey the scale of the Holocaust to the visitor, they ‘clump’ the victims together, which is something the IWM aims to avoid. Scholars suggested ‘exhibitions at Auschwitz created the template for museum representation of the Holocaust, for example, the ubiquitous piles of glasses, shoes and hair.’ The aforementioned aims of the IWM to avoid this strategy is exemplified by the display of a singular shoe, which again shifts the focus from communicating the scale of the Holocaust, to giving the victims agency and individuality. Exhibiting a single object enables the visitor to see the exact possessions which were taken away from individuals, without distracting them with an overpowering sense of mass murder. Therefore, the Holocaust Gallery at the Imperial War Museum London is a unique and interactive exhibition which individualises Holocaust victims by giving them agency, and by allowing their stories to be told.