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for an age that values accessibility and therapeutic registers over bombastic and grisly displays. These questions become all the more urgent as tradi- tional Holocaust museums draw criti- cism for reproducing Indigenous era- sure, and for fostering what essayist Dara Horn calls a love of “dead Jews” at the expense of the living. The aesthetic and emotional lan- guage of Holocaust memory is, or claims to be, shifting. But interviews with curators, architects, trustees, politicians, and survivors’ families reveal that, even as they advertise innovative designs and curatorial approaches, these new exhibitions reproduce old models of sublime, redemptive suffering that contribute to covering over structural injustices — models that are entwined with
WHAT ARE THE HOLOCAUST MUSEUMS OF THE FUTURE? by YASMINE EVE LUCAS
ACROSS NORTH AMERICA, Holocaust museums are being renovated and rebuilt for a post-survivor age. Mon- treal’s newly relocated Holocaust Museum (currently under construc- tion), the Toronto Holocaust Muse- um, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, are each expanding their reach through mult million-dollar redesigns and digital technologies like “Dimen- sions in Testimony,” which allows visitors to engage with holographic
recreations of survivors. These trans- formations are being advertised as cutting-edge and forward-looking: trading horror for hope, and insular- ity for inclusivity. Pain and torment are being tempered with light, empathy, and comfort: daylight-filled galleries invite visitors to see the Holocaust not only as a story of despair, but also as one of survival. Yet questions remain about whether these changes actual- ly introduce new frameworks or are merely cosmetic updates designed
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