Perusing this thread on the museum, I wanted to ask a question, but afraid it would be a hijack.
Why does the US have such a major museum dedicated to the Holocaust? I’m not trying to channel David Duke, but it is a serious question. None of it happened on US soil. We weren’t exactly the oppressors nor oppressed. Few, if any, were American victims (unless they just happened to be in Europe at the time).
While I know it’s a horrible chapter in world history, why does it have a dedicated museum on the national mall?
I don’t want answers like “those rascally Jews control the media, so they pushed it through” or questioning if I’m anti-semitic. What was the process that said a chapter in German-Polish-Russian (et al) history needed to have its own large museum here.
Wikipedia wasn’t much of a help, as it doesn’t address why to put a Holocaust museum in DC, of all places. But it did fight a bit of ignorance: it’s not part of the Smithsonian.
My wife and I said the same thing after going. I would say it’s definitely more memorial than museum… most of the artifacts that you could justify having a Smithsonian-like entity preserve for eterenity are housed in European museums, so they make up for the lack of stuff by having it be very “interactive.” Lots of movies, audio recordings, clips from documentaries, pictures, and castings or models of artifacts that exist elsewhere. I’ve never been to any of the other museums in Europe, but I would speculate that seeing a metal disection table would be a lot more gripping than seeing a plaster cast of a metal disection table that’s clearly been painted to look gruesome.
I think voting against a holocaust memorial would be political suicide for anyone involved, so it probably just exists as a physical observance of our strange feelings of guilt.
I assume that the US government wants to acknowledge, in some public fashion, that the event did actually occur, and that it did effect the nation and it’s people.
(Immigrants to the US from the areas this occured in were directly affected, as well as US servicemen who had to go to Europe and deal with the aftermath of the Holocaust.)
Also, the Holocaust has effected some US foreign policy (for example, supporting the establishment and independance of Isreal), and the museum will give these policies a “context”. Not everybody can afford to fly to Poland to see the museums there, and a museum closer to home makes it more convenient for those citizens who have an interest in the subject to indulge in some exploration of it on their own in a more memorable or meaningful way, as opposed to reading about it on Wikipedia.
I agree, I think it has to do with the government acknowledging it. Like said before, the US was involved in a war because of the holocaust, although indirectly (we were brought in because of Pear Harbor). Theres no reason not to have it. It was a huge part of the worlds history-- Not just european.
Of course, roughly half the civilian victims ot the European war were Jewish and the Poles, Slavs, Ukrainians, Slovenians, Serbs, Croatians, Greeks, Hungarians, and others who suffered in that period also left many relatives (and a number of refugee survivors) in the U.S.
Actually, it’s about two and a half blocks off the National Mall, although it’s across the street from the Washington Monument grounds. Some of the buildings on the National Mall include three built around private art collections (One of them dedicated to Asian art, another partially dedicated to the same); logically, these should raise more eyebrows than the Holocaust Memorial.
here’s some political speculation that may be relevant:
Jimmy Carter was deeply involved in the Middle East peace process and Camp David peace accord. He had to deal with the Israeli prime minisiter, M.Begin, and the Egyptian president Anwar Sadat.
Menachem Begin was a holocaust survivor. Sadat was a Nazi supporter,who had publicly praised Hitler.cite.
Begin’s main theme of his entire life was the Holocaust,and his disdain for Sadat was visceral.Carter may have been influenced by this when he created the US Holocaust commission
Carter may have done it for cynical reasons, as a political sop to Begin, to help convince him to sign the Camp David accords and boost Carter’s status.
Or Carter may have done it for moral reasons, because he was genuinely affected by the evil of the Holocaust and wanted to educate Americans to prevent history from repeating.
Except Carter didn’t “do it”, it was an act of Congress introduced 9/4/1980 by Rep Sidney R. Yates with 125 cosponsors. (unfortunately you can’t link to searches in THOMAS, so Google Public Law 96-388 it’s the first two results)
How could an act of congress in 1980 help convince Begin to sign the Camp David accords in 78?
My bad, I’ll give you the President’s Commission on the Holocaust, but since they didn’t issue their report recommending a memorial until September 27, 1979 I still don’t see any direct connection the memorial has to Camp David or Begin. (which was the question, why was the memorial built, not why did Carter appoint a President’s Commission on the Holocaust, right?)
CMC fnord!
Just so you understand my reaction to your post read this found on the first page of a Google search “why was the us holocaust memorial built”. I’ve no doubt that every action by every President might include some attempt to sway events in the world, so you may be right, it’s just that this one has some ugly baggage attached to it.
You’re linking to a site that’s a one-note fundraiser for a one-note Holocaust denier; talk about ugly baggage attached!
On that page, and in this thread’s OP, there’s a presumption that the memorials and museums on the Mall require a specific America First focus. Untrue. Most (but not all) of the memorials are to American presidents or war dead. (There’s also a small one for Albert Einstein if you know where to look!) Most of the museums are more global in focus. The National Gallery of Art (West wing, the old building) mostly showcases European old masters; the East wing is for modern artists, and is about evenly split between American and European works. There is a Gallery of American Art/National Portrait Gallery (two museums in one building) with a US focus, but it’s about three blocks north of the Mall.
The National Mall’s main concourse, roughly a mile long and three blocks wide, is flanked by several museums, mostly affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution. Two of these–American History and the Museum of the American Indian–are USA-specific. Natural History is not. Air and Space and the original Smithsonian “Castle” tend to be America-heavy, but feature international exhibits and artifacts as well. National Archives is all/mainly American stuff. The three remaining above-ground museums are the Hirshhorn (which features international artists with no particular preference for American works), Sackler (which focuses on Asian antiquities) and the Freer Gallery (an odd hodgepodge of Asian and European art).
The point isn’t to glorify America; the point is to educate Americans about their world and their country’s role in it. The Holocaust memorial is wholly appropriate as part of this mission.
1/2 of the Jews in the world live in the U.S. with even more having close ties so you could consider the U.S. the primary Jewish nation along with Israel as a close alli. For some reason it is considered offensive but Jews do have a disproportionate amount of influence in the U.S. judged by their population (about 2% of the U.S. total with concentrations in places much higher).
I just say, we have barbed wire and ball of twine museums so why not? Americans like WWII as history and hate Nazi Germany so there is a point of interest that comes together there.
Ok, I was just going by what my Jewish friends and relatives tell me but 40% is more accurate but still conveys the point. The U.S. has the most Jews in the world and Jews seem to have a disproportionate influence here.
We seem to get a little warped in the U.S. in terms of the number of Jews in the world. There are only about 13 million worldwide or about 0.001 percent of the world population. Our own Jewish population combined with a preoccupation of Israel with the people and government make it seem to be much larger.
I am not quite sure I understand the original question. We have a big Holocaust museum because people wanted one and some people worked to make it happen. We have museums for lots of things spread all around. As to why it is on the National Mall, there are lots of influential Jews in the U.S. and the public as a whole has it a big event associated with Nazi Germany in their minds and that always has interest. Keep in mind that area has lots of Smithsonian museums that cover anything you can imagine. There isn’t exactly a dearth of museums in the general vicinity. The Holocaust museum is just one of the newest ones.
I’m afraid that the only “ugly baggage” I found on the linked site was that of the half-truths, outright lies, and personal agenda of its author.
The actual Memorial certainly has a preponderance of information regarding the Jewish experience, but that is understandable given that about half the people selected for murder during WWII were Jews. It also notes the Rom, political prisoners, POWs, homosexuals, and others–none of whom are going to have quite as much documentation simply because each of those groups, individually, are much smaller than the number of Jewish victims. The Memorial also conducts ongoing presentations of current acts of genocide. Right now, the effort is directed toward the issues in Darfur. In previous years, they have been directed to other ongoing atrocities.