Legacies of the Holocaust: An Online Exhibition to Engage in Memories of the Holocaust

Learning how people remember the Holocaust is vital to consigning it to the history books

Museums and memorial centres present the history of the Holocaust to audiences worldwide, but not the history of Holocaust memory. Nottingham Trent University (NTU) researchers have created an online exhibition to fill this gap. Only by knowing more about the way the Holocaust has been remembered – or ignored – can we apply the lesson “never again”.

An online exhibition about the memory of the Holocaust

The research that informed Legacies of the Holocaust provides a thematic overview of the way in which film, literature, testimony, museums and memorials have responded to the challenge of Holocaust memory.

Integrating this exhibition into the “museumscapes” of the National Holocaust Centre and Museum – visited by some 30,000 people a year, mostly schoolchildren – will sensitise young people and adults to the need to find appropriate ways of remembering and applying the lessons of the Holocaust.

The research at NTU has been led by Professor Bill Niven, who has expertise in the area of Holocaust memory. He was supported by his PhD students, including Amy Williams, the creator of an international exhibition on the Kindertransport. He has collaborated with the National Holocaust Centre and Museum, and the online exhibition Legacies of the Holocaust is the result.

Acting on the legacy of the Holocaust

The online exhibition includes over 200 slides, and encourages engaged memory of the Holocaust. Schoolchildren will not simply absorb knowledge of the Holocaust passively, but will grow more aware of the need to think about the legacy of the Holocaust and to act upon it.