Institutional Allocations

Shoah Research, Education and Documentation

The Hall of Names at Yad Vashem, which functions as a repository for the Pages of Testimony of millions of Holocaust victims, a memorial to those who perished, and—in a separate room—a place where visitors can search the Shoah Victims’ Names Database. [photo: Yad Vashem]

Yad Vashem Opens Groundbreaking Museum

In March 2005, Yad Vashem opened its new Holocaust History Museum after more than 10 years of planning and building. The Claims Conference provided significant financial support for the project, which relates the Shoah from the viewpoint of its Jewish victims.

The new museum, more than four times larger than the previous one, focuses on the stories of individual Jews caught up in the Nazis’ destruction. Weaving 90 personal stories throughout the narrative of the Holocaust, the museum emphasizes the perspective and individuality of the Jews who suffered through the Shoah.

Individual stories illustrate entire historical themes and events, bringing an unprecedented human dimension to the story of the Holocaust. Unique settings, such as a recreation of a Warsaw Ghetto street with genuine artifacts, are designed to give visitors an overall impression of the time, places, and atmosphere in which the Shoah occurred. Wherever possible, artifacts are identified by their former owners and subjects of photographs are named and described.

The museum contains more than 2,500 artifacts and documents; 100 video screens displaying testimony from individual survivors and film clips; 280 art works; and more than 600 photographs of victims. The new Hall of Names houses the two million Pages of Testimony collected by Yad Vashem about individual Shoah victims and survivors; there are empty spaces for the Pages not yet collected, with room for six million Pages in total.

More than 40 international delegations participated in the museum’s inauguration, including many heads of state. The new museum building was designed by world-renowned architect Moshe Safdie.

The new museum ends Yad Vashem’s multiyear development plan, much of which was funded by the Claims Conference, including the new International School for Holocaust Studies, an International Institute for Holocaust Research, a new Archives and Library Building, and the digitization center to preserve films and documents.