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Brooke Churma

12/2/14

CAS 201
Research Paper: Draft 4

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

It is hard to believe that an event that occurred in another country would have such
a powerful existence in the United States. The Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. has
been open since 1994, and has grown as a museum and exhibit ever since. The artifacts and
images on display in the museum carry meanings that have an odd effect on people that
visit. When touring the museum people get an idea of how living through the Holocaust
might have been and this makes people feel bad, but once they leave they feel better about
themselves for some reason. Why does the museum leave visitors like this? Certain
meanings can suggest a preferred subject position and imply that these artifacts can be
represented as keystone signs and transformative signs. The Holocaust Museum in
Washington D.C. will be analyzed as a visual perspective, not only through the art that
resides inside the museum, but also by analyzing the overall structure and design of the
building using vernacular history. I will first review the literature that other scholarly
authors have conducted on this matter and pick out the main points that they make, then I
will analyze how the visitors are the preferred subject position of this museum, how
appropriateness through exhibits and structure is a keystone sign of this museum, and then
the pathos of this museum as a whole.
Literature Review

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The Holocaust did not take place in the United States, yet it is still important to

share what we know with others who did not experience this significant event. One way of
sharing these memories is through a museum, full of artifacts and information that others
can learn from. Authors Jeffery Courtright from Illinois State University, Gerald Slaughter
from Indiana State University, and Peter Smudde from the University of Wisconsin
analyzed Wollastons four predominate roles found in Holocaust museums. Wollaston
argued that Holocaust museums served four purposes, as sites of mass tourism, as
memorials, as narrators and preservers of history, and as educators and that they perform
these roles in various ways.(3) The authors also agree with Wollastons analysis of
Holocaust museums, but believe that these roles can overlap, therefore they have divided
narrators and preservers of history(3) into two separate roles. In order for a Holocaust
museum to be successful in the United States these three authors believe that a museum
must embody three characteristics: continuity over time, centrality, and
distinctiveness.(5) Curators strive to embody these characteristics and create exhibits that
will allow the visitor to take something away with them. These museums hold memories of
what once was, and keep them locked up so that they can be used as a constant reminder to
never forget.
Courtright, Slaughter, and Smudde conducted a study that focused on the specific
roles of the museum, the rankings of importance compared to other museums, and what
this museum predominant roles are. The end of the studied resulted in a strategic plan to
be carried out by the curators.
The strategic promotions plan would give Holocaust museum/exhibit
curators a systematic approach to ensuring that people (1) recognize the

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institution in terms of its image and identity, (2) understand the importance
of the particular museums/exhibits contribution to knowledge about the
Shoah, (3) develop supportive attitudes about the museums/exhibits place
in the community, and (4) inspire people to visit the institution and, perhaps,
spread the word about it and support it financially or otherwise.(25)

As Courtright, Slaughter, and Smudde conducted a study of the museums many roles,
Marouf Hasian conducted another study that focused on the visitors experience within the
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Haisan collected information as he walked through the exhibits, participated in the
interactive displays, analyzed bits and pieces from the actual exhibits and what was
contained in them, and analyzed how the visitors acted and reacted inside the museum.
Haisan also focused on how much effort is put into the museum by the curators and
planners so that there is something remaining once the last surviving generation dies. The
$168 million dollar museum is dedicated to those who have suffered through this
significant event in history and to remember those who have lost their battle. (67)
The museum that contains graphic films, survivor narratives, reproductions of
death camp accoutrements, and even medical experimentation labs, the edifice supplies
more than just a rhetoric of display.(68) A visit to the U.S. Holocaust Museum can have a
dramatic effect on someone and ultimately change their life in someway. (70) These
artifacts and displays are set up by the curators and planners in a strategic way so that they
generate feelings for the visitors, which create a one-of-a-kind experience that cannot be
found elsewhere. These acts of pilgrimage are important because these journeys can
potentially alter our present and future identities.(70) Walking through the museum,

Hasian analyzed the visitors and made observations of these participants in some of the
interactive displays were perceived as victims or prisoners. Hasian recognized this in an
exhibit where visitors will travel over glass walkways that were designed to remind
visitors of the bridges that the Jews had to cross over in the Warsaw Ghetto. The visitor
who walks across these pathways temporarily performs the role of victim, re-enacting
some of the traumatic memories of earlier generations.(72)
Haisan reviews the claims made stating that the museum should not be in the
United States because the event did not occur in the United States and that it has been
misplaced. (73) Haisan also analyzes the museum using vernacular history by discussing
the structure of the museum and the flow that is carried out from room to room. (71) The
curators had to put a lot of thought into the design and building of a structure that would
house many dark artifacts. The architects wanted to portray the museum in a modern, old-
way with respecting the time period and materials that would have been present at that
time.
Haisan analyzed all the was entailed in the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and
came to the conclusion that there were both discursive and non-discursive components
and that there were five major elements that the museum portrayed:(75)
a) the Allied liberation of the camp made by an American affair; b) all of this
evidence provides overwhelming proof of the ontological existence of the
Holocaust; c) there were millions of Jews and others who lost their lives
during the Final Solution; d) western immigration policies and wartime
policies contributed to this tragedy; and e) a tour of the museum can help
reduce the likelihood of future genocides. (75-76)

Haisan gave more examples and analyzed more in his text to support his argument that the
Holocaust Museum carries a lot of rhetoric. The designers and planners of the museum had
big plans to fulfill and believed that enforcing the emotional connection is really the only
way of keeping the memory alive.(78) Another scholarly author, Victoria Aarons, argues
that the memory of this event helped support this museum and represent this historical
event.
Aarons analyzed the memory, conscience, and the moral weight of the Holocaust
representation within museums. (183) Aarons studied how an event can still impact the
present and future if interpreted a certain way. Even though events have occurred at
different times the structure of the museum removes the barriers between the past,
present, and future, and allows the curators to recreate the past for visitors to understand
as much as they possibly could.
Here, Holocaust narratives must bend the customs of conventional genres;
they must, by necessity deviate from traditional forms and expectations of
language and design, a turning from ordinary linguistic structures and secure
shapes of discursive modes in order to call attention to the distortion of time,
place, and identity in the ordinary world, a world which becomes, in
Holocaust narratives, as the writer Ida Fink suggests, fractured and broken.
(187)
The artifacts and exhibits do not convey the severity of the Holocaust, but they do awaken
ones mind in a way that allows them to understand maybe just a fraction of what it might
have been like. (187)

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Aarons analyzed another scholarly author, Berel Lange and quoted him suggesting,

the central question to ask in the analysis of Holocaust representation is just how the
deepest and most urgent Holocaust arthas succeeded in turning an oppositional impulse
into its own strength.(188) By referring to this in the article, Aarons proves a point stating
that how these artifacts and exhibits are planned helps to show how powerful they are.
Since the last surviving generation is slowly decreasing in numbers, it is becoming
more difficult for curators and planners to see if they have recreated this time period and
event in the manner that it was conducted during that time. The curators are left with
images, displays, and stories that can help keep the representation of the Holocaust and
remind those that this significant event occurred. (195) Aarons also discusses how the
representation of the Holocaust museum can upset a survivor, which is never the intention,
but can happen since the curators try to recreate the event so that others can understand.
(196) By seeing that the curators try to add as little as possible and keep the artifacts and
exhibits to their natural state, the artifacts, displays, exhibits, and images are all powerful
enough to give their own message if displayed in the correct manner.
These scholarly authors all have different viewpoints about what this museum
means in the United States. All of these authors do agree that there are certain methods
that should be followed in order to keep this museum going and successful. The artifacts
inside of this museum all carry heavy meanings that made an impact on each of these
authors and through their arguments I will be able to analyze different parts of this
museum and how rhetorical methods are carried throughout.

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All of these scholarly authors have analyzed the museum in a specific way. I will be

analyzing the museums roles, like Courtright, Slaughter, and Smudde, but I will be focusing
on the roles that apply to the preferred subject position, the victims. Haisan used artifacts
and displays as forms of rhetoric to add support to his argument. I will be analyzing the
artifacts, displays, and exhibits as to how they are keystone signs and transformative signs.
And lastly, I will be supporting Aarons study of how this museum carries a lot of moral
weight by analyzing the vernacular history of particular rooms within the museum.
Methods
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum can be analyzed through multiple
rhetorical terms. The museum can first be analyzed through the preferred subject position,
a person that implies what the text calls to. (178) The visitors of the museum, survivors,
and people with knowledge of the Holocaust, people without knowledge of the Holocaust,
and children all have different perspectives of the museum from when they enter to when
they leave.
The structure of this museum as well as the artifacts it contains can be analyzed as a
keystone signs; one sign that hold the whole meaning system together. (108) This building
holds many artifacts and a lot of information about the Holocaust, but it also holds a
meaning of importance because of what this building represents overall and where it was
placed in regards to where the event actually occurred.
Many of these artifacts from the Holocaust fill up the space in this museum. Some
artifacts and images are transformative signs, a sign that stands in for an issue or
problem. (108) The Eternal Flame in the Hall of Remembrance inside the museum can be
analyzed as a transformative sign because it represents so much more than just a flame

that constantly burns. This is a space for visitors to reflect and respect those who have
suffered through the Holocaust.
Approaching the building or inside the building visitors are formulating thoughts of
what they are seeing. The building, images, and structure can be analyzed through the
visual perspective, what the images mean when first seen by the eye, how the image equals
structure. The contexts of the images, artifacts, and displays and how they are interpreted
can be applied to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Overall, all that is held and conducted in the museum is important to make sure that
the mission for the museum is reached. Stewart Brand analyzed buildings by using the
study of vernacular history. Vernacular history is the study of how buildings are built to
stand out but still adapt to time as things change. Monuments are built not to adapt to
change, but they hold something very important, our lives, and memories of those no
longer with us. (8) The study of vernacular history can be applied to the location of the
building, the building itself, and the design of each exhibit room, like the room where the
Eternal Flame is kept.
Analysis
The pathos of this museum is very heavy and affects all visitors that come to the
museum. The curators and planners at the museum have a big job on their hands having to
achieve the museums mission, and portray the Holocaust in a way that is not too graphic or
inappropriate. One goal is to make it as real as possible so that the visitors can get a
fraction of an understanding of what it might have been like to be in that situation. It is
important to supply the public with actual artifacts and images from that time period, but it
is important to not make certain parts of the museum too real.

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The visitors that have knowledge of the Holocaust can benefit from this memorial

site because of all the information and artifacts that it holds. People visiting for the first
time get a sense of what happened and the overall experience is upsetting, but each visitor
leaves with a different perspective from when they walked in. The museum portrays a lot
of elements that were reproduced from the time the Holocaust occurred and for how real it
seems scares many of these visitors. You can see how this museum affects people from
beginning to end. You can see how their mood shifts and how they become silent in certain
areas in the museum as a way to give respect.
The museum is open to anyone of all ages, so because of that the curators really had
to make a space where children can engage and be involved with learning what happened.
The appropriateness of the museum is important, so to reach all ages the curators designed
an exhibit Remember the Children: Daniels Story. By creating this exhibit for children the
curators give children a chance to learn about the Holocaust in a way that is appropriate for
the children. The interactive exhibit shares information about the Holocaust from a Jewish
childs diary, how they lived a normal life until the Holocaust began, and how the child was
by the end. An exhibit like this it allows the museum to let anyone of any age in to learn
about the Holocaust, that way children today can learn from a young age and actually
understand this event.
The pathos of this museum is carried out through each display, exhibit, and artifact.
It is important to acknowledge that these things represent this museum and make it what it
is. These objects are represented as keystone and transformative signs, but other
characteristics of this museum can be represented through these signs as well.

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This building has many keystone signs, appropriateness being one of them. Located

in Washington, D.C., the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is located on the
National Mall. Among other memorial sites, the museum stands out because the Holocaust
did not occur in the United States. This museum is located here in the U.S. is because so
many emigrated from other countries to escape the Holocaust and what remained after it
was all over. This worldwide memorial teaches so many about the Holocaust and what
happened, and that it is structured so well that people from all over the world come to see
it. Appropriateness is a keystone sign because the building not only holds many objects and
meanings but the building itself holds its own meaning that holds the whole system
together.
There are many artifacts and images within the museum that carry a transformative
sign. The Eternal Flame, located in the Hall of Remembrance, can be analyzed as a
transformative sign. The Eternal Flame represents so much in this room. Not only is it
located in the center of the room, but it constantly is burning and never goes out. It signifies
the Holocaust as a symbol that the Holocaust occurred and to never forget. Above the flame
there is an inscription from Deuteronomy:
Only guard yourself and guard your soul carefully, lest you forget the things
your eyes saw, and lest these things depart your heart all the days of your life.
And you shall make them known to your children, and your childrens children
(web)
This flame stands in for the remembrance of those that survived the Holocaust, those who
were lost in the Holocaust, and those who never could image what it must have been like.

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There are many images, thoughts, and information that visitors take away from a

visit to this museum. All images, artifacts, and exhibits build up a representation of the
Holocaust, and these are all seen by the visitors visually. Many artifacts on display cause
emotions in a person to arise and allow them to feel something they might not have felt
before. An example of an exhibit that focuses on the victims as the preferred subject
position is the Victims Shoe exhibit. Many items were taken from the Jews but shoes were
just one thing taken right before they were sent to gas chambers. An exhibit of shoes is on
display in the museum and the sight is unbelievable. This display is not just an image or a
single artifact on display; this display contains shoes of people that were sent to the killing
centers. This display contains 4,000 shoes that were found at just one concentration camp,
and these are only a fraction of what was found. By placing these shoes on display and not
enclosing it like most, it allows the smell of the shoes to fill the small hall they are placed in
and the smell helps create a new perspective for that visitor. This display equals structure
within the Holocaust Museum and shows the pathos of the museum when viewing this
display.
The Hall of Remembrance is located at the end of the visitors journey through the
museum. While this room encompasses many meanings about the Holocaust, the structure
and design of the room allow vernacular history to be applied and for it to be analyzed in
this way. Vernacular history is the study of the design and structure of a building and how
this all carries much of importance for the artifacts that are placed in the building. The Hall
of Remembrance is structured in a hexagonal shape and simple with the number of
artifacts it contains. The actual artifacts within the hall are not simple by any means; the
actual room is very plain allowing the artifacts to have all of the attention. However, the

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shape of the room is important because on each flat face of the hexagonal shape, the
concentration camps are inscribed while the eternal flame sits in the middle of the room.
The placement of the eternal flame is important because that is the main spectacle of the
room. Once a visitor realizes that the death camps circle the flame above it evokes emotion
and fills the room with more meaning than one could have thought. The skylight is placed
at the center at the top to let in the natural light on the granite walls, which brings out so
many features. All of these attributes that have been put together in this room as a sign in
such a simple way results in anyone who enters the room to respect it. The structure and
design of this room really increases this momentous room that touches the lives of every
visitor that walks through its threshold.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum stands for so much and holds
artifacts and displays that carry a weight of many meanings. The fact that this museums
appropriateness is questioned is unique but understandable because of the location of the
museum compared to where the actual event was originally. The pathos created within this
museum really stays with people a reminds them of what life could be like and what it
actually is like. The visitors of this museum take away information, images that are
embedded into their head, the experience, and just a small piece of the heavy meanings that
fill this memorial.

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Works Cited

Aarons, Victoria. Memory, Conscience, and the Moral Weight of Holocaust Representation.
New York: Lexington Books, 2014. Print. Ethics, Art, and Representations of the
Holocaust.
Brand, Stewart. How Buildings Learn. Viking Penguin, 1994. Print.
Brummett, Barry. Rhetoric in Popular Culture. Los Angeles: Sage, 2015. Print.
Courtright, Slaughter, and Peter M. Smudde. A Preliminary Analysis of Wollastons
Holocaust Museum Roles: A Public Relations Perspective. International
Communication Association (2007): 1-42. Print.
Hasian, Marouf Jr. Remembering and Forgetting the Final Solution: A Rhetorical
Pilgrimage through the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Critical Studies in Media
Communication 21.1 (2004): 64-92. Print.
The Interior: The Hall of Remembrance. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Web. 17
Nov. 2014. <http://www.ushmm.org/information/about-the-museum/>
Victims Shoes. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Web. 17 Nov. 2014.
<http://ushmm.org/information/exhibitons/permanent/shoes>