United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Washington DC

About the MuseumA living memorial to the Holocaust, the UnitedStates Holocaust Memorial Museum stimulatesleaders and citizens to confront hatred, preventgenocide, promote human dignity, andstrengthen democracy. A public-privatepartnership, federal support guarantees theMuseum’s permanence, and donors nationwidemake possible its educational activities andglobal outreach.

About the MuseumLocated among our national monuments tofreedom on the National Mall, the Museumprovides a powerful lesson in the fragility offreedom, the myth of progress, the need for vigilance in preserving democratic values. Withunique power and authenticity, the Museumteaches millions of people each year about thedangers of unchecked hatred and the need toprevent genocide.

About the MuseumAnd we encourage them to act, cultivating asense of moral responsibility among our citizensso that they will respond to the monumentalchallenges that confront our world. Today weface an alarming rise in Holocaust denial andantisemitism—even in the very lands whereThe Holocaust happened—as well as genocideand threats of genocide in other parts of theworld. (Preceding text from the Museum’s web site,www.ushmm.org)

The Hall of Witness at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.— Credit: Alan Gilbert, courtesy of USHMM Photo Archives.

For memory is a moral action, a choice. You can choose to remember. You can choose not.

Joyce Carol Oates

The 15th Street/Eisenhower Plaza entrance to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

— Credit: Max Reid, USHMM Photo Archives.

All of us, whether guilty or not, whether old or young, must accept the past… it is not a case of coming to terms with the past. That is not possible. It cannot be subsequently modified or undone. However, anyone who closes his eyes to the past is blind to the present. Whoever refuses to remember the inhumanity is prone to new risks of infection… seeking to forget makes exile all the longer; the secret of redemption lies in remembrance.

Richard von WeizsackerPresident, Federal Republic of Germany(1984-1994)

Visitors to the Museum pass under this gate, a cast taken from the original entrance to the Auschwitz death camp, inscribed with the ironic phrase Arbeit

Macht Frei (Work Makes One Free).— Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.

Hebrews 13:3

Dedication in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Hall of Remembrance

AG/United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Hall of Remembrance

I do not bring forgiveness with me, nor forgetfulness. The only ones who can forgive are dead; the living have no right to forget.

Chaim HerzogPresident of Israel1983-1993