Exhibiting the Holocaust: Museum Tour Narratives as Presentations of Institutional Post-Holocaust American Identity

Holocaust museums on American soil not only offer visitors a mediated version of history, but they offer a position of post-Holocaust American identity. This thesis attempts to explore the ways in which two of the largest Holocaust museums in America – the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. and the Museum of Jewish Heritage: A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in New York City – publish their message, and how these messages correspond to their understanding of their own museological and national identities.\r As mainstream cultural institutions, these museums publish their message – first and foremost – through their principal exhibition narratives. These narrative scripts are educational devices, and often represent initial encounters by contemporary American students with the events of the Holocaust. This investigation will attempt to understand how and to what end these narratives communicate intentionally constructed reflections of specific social, cultural, and political objectives.\r This study promotes a more nuanced and comprehensive assessment of institutional identity and the ways in which history is exhibited. By concentrating on these narratives, Exhibiting the Holocaust will provide support for the argument that institutional identity directly informs a highly constructed depiction and experience of the Holocaust.