GENOCIDE MEMORIALS AND MUSEUMS

Compiiled by Marc I. Sherman, M.L.S

Yad Vashem Hall of Remembrance
Website: http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/remembrance/hall_of_remembrance.asp

Hall of Remembrance In 1961, Yad Vashem inaugurated the Hall of Remembrance, the first Holocaust commemoration site established at Yad Vashem on the Mount of Remembrance in Jerusalem. The Hall is an imposing structure, with walls made of basalt boulders brought from the area surrounding the Sea of Galilee, and an angular roof that gives it a tent-like shape. Engraved on the mosaic floor are the names of 22 of the most infamous Nazi murder sites, symbolic of the hundreds of extermination and concentration camps, transit camps and killing sites that existed throughout Europe. The Eternal Flame, burning from a base fashioned like a broken bronze goblet, continuously illuminates the Hall, its smoke exiting the building through an opening at the highest point of the ceiling. Before it stands a stone crypt containing the ashes of Holocaust victims, brought to Israel from the extermination camps. A focal point of commemoration to this day, the Hall of Remembrance serves as Yad Vashem’s premier site for memorial ceremonies.

Armenian Genocide Martyrs’ Memorial
Website: http://armenianmonument.org/monument-location.html

The Armenian Genocide Martyrs’ Memorial in Deir ez-Zor, Syria, is a complex dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide. The construction of the memorial started in December 1989 and was completed in November 1990. Currently, the complex serves as church, museum, monument, archive centre and exhibition.. It is under the direct administration of the Armenian Prelacy, Diocese of Aleppo. Every year, on April 24, tens of thousands of Armenian pilgrims from all over the world, visit the Der Zor complex to commemorate the genocide victims, with the presence of their religious leaders.

The hall which is turned into a small museum, contains different books, publications and documentary photos exhibited to narrate the real story of the sufferings during the genocide.

Gnadenhutten Memorial and Museum
Address: Gnadenhutten, Ohio
Website: http://www.graveaddiction.com/gnadenhu.html

Gnadenhutten was founded by a Moravian missionary, David Zeisberger, in 1772. It is the oldest settlement in Ohio. His goal was to convert the local Indian tribes to Christianity. He succeeded in converting around 400 people.

There is a very nice museum with many local artifacts, and a mission house and cooper shop have been constructed on the site of the original cabins that served as the execution locations. It’s no wonder many people believe the spirits of the ninety-six massacred Indians still haunt the area…it was a very dark day in American history. Many people have heard screams around the execution cabins, and several have also seen ghostly figures
walking around the park.

Assyrian Genocide Memorial
Address: Bonnyrigg Park Bonnyrigg Heights New South Wales Australia
Website: http://monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/conflict/genocide/display/93083-assyrian-genocide-monument

This Assyrian Genocide Memorial was dedicated on August 7, 2010. It commemorates the Assyrian genocide committed at the hands of the Ottomans Turkey during WWI, which claimed about 750,000 innocent lives and the Simile massacre at the hands of Iraqi army on 7th August 1933, which claimed the lives of about 6000 innocent Assyrians. Each year, on August 7, the Assyrian communities worldwide commemorate Assyrian Martyr’s Day.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
Address: Georgenstrasse 23 10117 Berlin
Tel.: +49 (0)30 / 26 39 43 11
Fax.: +49 (0)30 / 26 39 43 20
Zipcode: 10117
Email: info@stiftung-denkmal.de
Website: http://www.stiftung-denkmal.de/startseite.html (German)

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in the centre of Berlin is Germany’s
central Holocaust memorial site, a place for remembrance and commemoration of six
million victims.

The Memorial consists of the Field of Stelae designed by architect Peter Eisenman and
the underground Information Centre and is maintained by a Federal Foundation.
The Field of Stelae is open to the public day and night. The Information Centre is open
from April to September from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. (last entrance 7.15 p.m.). From October
to March the underground exhibition can be visited from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. (last entrance
6.15 p.m.). The Information Centre is closed on Mondays except statutory holidays.

Topf & Sons Builders of the Auschwitz Ovens
Address: Sorbenweg 7 99099 Erfurt
Email: topfundsoehne@erfurt.de

On 27 January 2011, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the city of Erfurt
inaugurated its new Place of Remembrance: Topf & Sons – Builders of the Auschwitz
Ovens on the former company grounds in Sorbenweg in Erfurt.
According to a resolution passed unanimously by the Erfurt municipal council on 21
November 2007:

“As a place of historical-political education, the Topf & Sons Place of Remembrance
now to be established is of national significance. No place but these former company
grounds in Erfurt better serves the purpose of remembering how the Holocaust was
made possible and put into practise by industry and private enterprise. There was no
civilian location at which the issues associated with the practice e of the industrial
extermination of human life were more present than in this company: within the context
of orders, work, and technological challenges. As we know from experience with the
exhibition ‘Engineers of the Final Solution’, the immediacy of the connection to mass
murder at Auschwitz, the conciseness of the findings with regard to connivance and
complicity, and the easy-to-comprehend scope of the protagonists and proceedings in
the company at the time lend themselves exceptionally well to educational purposes.”

Armenian Genocide Memorial (Yerevan, Armenia)
Address: Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex RA, Yerevan, Armenia 0028
Country: Armenia
Email: info@genocide-museum.am
Website: http://www.genocide-museum.am/eng/index.php

The Armenian Genocide Memorial, Tsitsernakaberd, in Yerevan, Armenia is situated on a hill above the city of Yerevan. Following a major demonstration to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the genocide in 1966, the monument was built and completed in 1968, It contains a 44 meter high stela, 12 inclined slabs made of granite forming a circle, an eternal flame in the middle of the circle, a 100 meter long wall containing the names of Armenian towns and villages where massacres took place, a museum and a park. Every year on April 24, thousands of Armenians from Armenia and around the world gather to commemorate the anniversary of the genocide by laying flowers around the eternal flame. (Retrieved from the memorial’s website)

Srebrenica Genocide Memorial (Srebrenica, Bosna and Hercegovina)
Address: Srebrenica, Bosna i Hercegovina
Tel.: +38756440082
Fax.: +38756440874
Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina
Email:  mcentar@teol.net
Website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srebrenica_Genocide_Memorial

Description: The Srebrenica Genocide memorial, officially known as the Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial and Cemetery for the Victims of the 1995 Genocide, is the memorial-cemetery complex in Srebrenica set up to honour the victims of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide. (Retrieved from the memorial’s website).

Topography of Terror Exhibition
Address: Stiftung Topographie des Terrors Topography of Terror Foundation Niederkirchnerstraße 8 10963 Berlin
Country: Germany
Email: ausstellung@topographie.de
Website: http://www.topographie.de/en/topography-of-terror/nc/1/

The Topography of Terror Foundation has designed the online memorial forum which will serve as an entry-level and interactive communication platform for the memorial area. The online memorial forum is to be through the participation of all interested parties on a hub for the German memorial landscape.

To make the memorial forum to date and informative, it is dependent on the cooperation of the memorials and other institutions working in this field. The memorial are asked to enter events, new literature references as well as research and discussion papers themselves.

Greek Genocide Nea Moudania (Memorial, Greece)
Address: Nea Moudania (Νέα Μουδανιά) Thessaloniki, Greece
Country: Greece
Email: info@greek-genocide.org

Description: In the town of Nea Moudania, south-east of the city of Thessaloniki, Greece, stands a memorial dedicated to Greek victims of the 1914-1923 genocide in the Ottoman Empire.

In Greek the word “nea” means “new,” for Moudania is originally a coastal town on the Sea of Marmara in Turkey which was once inhabited by Greeks. In the early 1920s when the surviving Greeks fled Turkey or were compelled to migrate by the post-genocide compulsory population exchange, the town of New Moudania in Greece became home to many of the survivors from Moudania in Turkey.

This commemorative memorial, titled “Unforgettable Homelands,” is the work of esteemed sculptress Angelika Korovessi (b. 1952). It is situated on the main waterfront, adjacent to the town square. The memorial consists of a bronze sculpture of a mother and child on a marble base together with three marble towers. Inscribed on one of the marble pillars is a quotation by the writer Elias Venezis. The 1998 erection of the memorial was sponsored by the former town mayor Apostle Dalabiras. (Retrieved from the memorial’s website)

Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders
Country: Japan
Email: nj1937@126.com
Website: http://www.nj1937.org/en/index.htm

The compound of the Memorial is located at one of the execution grounds of the Massacre called jiangdongmen,noe, Nanjing. Since opening to the public on August 15, 1985, more than 8,000,000 visitors from all over the world have visited the Memorial.

The Memorial Hall for Compatriots killed in the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Forces of Aggression is located in the southwestern corner of Nanjing known as Jiangdongmen, which used to be one of the execution grounds and mass burial places of the cruel holocaust.

Occupying an area about 28,000 square meters with a floor space of 3,000, it was built in 1985 in memory of the 300,000 victims in the event. Later, in 1995 it was enlarged and renovated. The buildings in the complex are fashioned out of black and white granite blocks, looking spectacular and magnificent, rendering a feeling of solemnity and reverence. It is an exhibition site with historical records and objects as well as architecture, sculptures and video and film projections to unfold a specific chapter of history concerning one of the ugliest experiences forced on mankind.

The memorial consists of three parts: the outdoor exhibits, the remaining bones of the killed and the museum for historical material displaying. In the outdoor sector, group sculptures, full-length statues, relief carvings, signboards, monuments, redeeming and repentant tablets, withered trees and broken walls as well as a wall carved with the names of part of the victims so far that have been located cluster together with green shrubs and lawns to suggest a graveyard-style architecture with the themes of life and death, grief and indignation. A building shaped like a coffin is to shelter some of the victims’ bones excavated from the pits of thousands of bodies right in the site when the memorial was in construction-iron evidence for the bloody crimes committed by the aggressive Japanese troops. The museum lies half buried in the ground like a colossal tomb. Inside, an immense collection of pictures, objects, charts and photographs relate the horror of the Rape of Nanjing. Through a versatility of means for exhibitions such as lighted cabinets, sand trays, clay moldings, oil paintings, micro-computers appliances, documentary shows and so on, the tragedy of the cruel holocaust in Nanjing and the beastly atrocities of the Japanese militarists are pictured and recounted.

Past experience, if not forgotten, is the guide for the future. The Nanjing Memorial has become an important site for international communities to pray for PEACE as well as a site for historical and cultural exchanges. In China, it is also a national demonstrative educational base for patriotism.

Toul Sleng Genocide Museum (S-21)
Address: Toul Sleng Genocide Museum (S-21)
Country: Cambodia
Website: http://www.tuolsleng.com/

Description: The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum is a museum in Penom Pehn, the capital of Cambodia. The site is a former high school which was used as the notorious Security Prison 21 (S-21) by the Khmer Rouge communist regime from its rise to power in 1975 to its fall in 1979. Tuol Sleng (Khmer [tuəl slaeŋ]) means “Hill of the Poisonous Trees” or “Strychnine Hill”. (Retrieved from Wikipedia)

Choeung Ek Memorial (Cambodia)
Address: Dangkor District , Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Tel.: (855) 12 576 872
Fax.: ( 855) 23 880278
Country: Cambodia
Email: jcr@online.com.kh
Website: http://www.cekillingfield.org/index.php/en/about-us/choeung-ek-genocidal-center.html
Choeung Ek is a memorial to the victims of the Cambodian Genocide. It contains a Buddhist stupa with acrylic glass sides that is filled with more than 5,000 human skulls. Some of the lower levels are opened during the day so that the skulls can be seen directly. Many of the skulls have been shattered or crushed due to the torture encountered by the victims at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. (Retrieved from the memorial’s website)

Museum of Memory and Tolerance (Mexico City, Mexico)
Address: Museum of Memory and Tolerance Luis Moya 12 Col. Centro C.P. 06010 México City, Mexico
Tel.: +(5255) 5130-5555
Fax.: +(5255) 5130-5555
Country: Mexico
Website: http://www.myt.org.mx/

In 1999, “Memoria y Tolerancia A.C.” (Memory and Tolerance, Non-profit Organization) was founded as such with the purpose of transmitting tolerance through the memory of history. By showing the most significant examples of intolerance committed by mankind, such as acts of genocide, we can come to understand the value of tolerance and diversity.

Since its onset, “Memoria y Tolerancia” planed an Educational Museum and Center in Mexico City, believing that the best tool for the creation of awareness is through learning and education

The Museum strives to teach and diffuse among Mexican society, the importance of tolerance and diversity; to create awareness through the memory of history and the significance of the Holocaust and other genocides; alerting the visitor as to the dangers of hate, discrimination and indifference, in order to thus create awareness, respect and responsibility in each individual.

The objectives of the Museum are:

To inform visitors regarding the extent and consequences of hate, discrimination and intolerance.
To foster the values of tolerance and respect.
To encourage new generations to seek a healthier coexistence, while being more committed to their surroundings.
To encourage visitors to do some soul-searching and have a change of heart.
To nurture reflection that stems from social action.
To educate and create awareness of commitment towards the needs of the more vulnerable.To give a new interpretation to the meaning of the word tolerance and its connotation.
(Retrieved from the trust’s web site)

Kigali Memorial Centre
Type: Museums
Address: The Kigali Memorial Centre c/o The Aegis Trust P.O Box 7251 Kigali Rwanda
Country: Rwanda
Website: http://www.kgm.rw/

The Kigali Memorial Centre was opened on the 10th Anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide, in April 2004. The Centre is built on a site where over 250,000 people are buried.

The Centre is a permanent memorial to those who fell victim to the genocide and serves as a place for people to grieve those they lost. The Centre includes three permanent exhibitions, the largest of which documents the genocide in 1994. There is also a children’s memorial, and an exhibition on the history of genocidal violence around the world. The Education Centre, Memorial Gardens and National Documentation Centre of the Genocide all contribute to a meaningful tribute to those who perished, and form a powerful educational tool for the next generation.

Inside the main building, the exhibits include an overview of the Rwandan genocide, with particular emphasis placed on the colonial context, those Rwandans who managed to save people, and the long-term effects of the genocide. Certain aspects of this history are highlighted using multimedia displays and short documentaries. In the upstairs of the exhibit, there is a touching photograph exhibit dedicated to the children who were killed during the genocide, as well as a comparative exhibit aimed at demonstrating similarities between the Rwandan genocide of 1994 and the genocides in Turkish Armenia, Nazi-occupied Europe, Cambodia, and Bosnia, among others.

American Indian Genocide Museum (Houston, Texas)
Address: American Indian Genocide Museum 6201 Bonhomme American Indian Genocide Museum Suite 404-S Houston, Texas 77036
Tel.: (281) 841-3028
Zipcode: 77036
Country: United States
Email: indmuseum@aigenom.com, indmuseum@yahoo.com
Website: http://www.aigenom.com

The purpose of this museum is to bring historical truth to light through the means of education using actual documentation of events that have transpired in the near extermination, and in some cases, the total extermination of native tribes and cultures. It will be a memorial to the victims of ethnic cleansing. Racism, discrimination and injustice will be addressed with the purpose of promoting public awareness that these elements of genocide which existed in the past, continue to exist today. A further purpose of the museum will be to address prejudice which is generated toward native peoples through biased reporting of history. The goal of influencing authors of school textbooks with irrefutable documentation shall be of major importance. A library and microfilm archive will be available. The visual use of art, sculpture and film will create a memorable learning experience.

Wounded Knee Museum (Wall, South Dakota)
Address: Wounded Knee Museum 217 10th Avenue Wall, South Dakota 57790
Tel.: (605) 279-2573
Zipcode: 57790
Country: United States
Email: info@woundedkneemuseum.org
Website: http://www.woundedkneemuseum.org

Description: The museum is located at Exit 110 on Interstate 90 in Wall, South Dakota. This innovative museum tells the story of a small band of Lakota families who became the focus of the last military operation of the US army in its centuries long effort to subdue the Native American tribes.

Exhibits and photography provide a vivid picture of events surrounding the Wounded Knee Massacre. The museum presents a carefully researched, thoroughly documented history of the flight of Big Foot’s band of Miniconjou Lakota through the wintery South Dakota landscape, their capture by the 7th Cavalry, and the horrors of the morning of December 29, 1890, when up to 3—Lakota men, women, and children died in a hail of bullets from rifles and Hotchkiss guns. (Retrieved from the museum’s website)

New Mexico Holocaust & Intolerance Museum and Study Center (Albuquerque, NM)
Address: Holocaust & Intolerance Museum of New Mexico 616 Central Avenue SW Albuquerque, NM 87102
Tel.: 505-247-0606
Zipcode: 87102
Country: United States
Email: info@nmholocaustmuseum.org
Website: http://www.nmholocaustmuseum.org/

Description: Our purpose is to educate people about the Holocaust as well as teach about other genocides and forms of bullying that have affected people around the world. We are not limited to one religion, culture, geographic area, or time. (Retrieved from the museum’s website)

Armenian Genocide Museum of America (Washington, D.C.)
Address: Armenian Genocide Museum of America 1334 G Street, NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20005
Tel.: (202) 383-9009
Country: United States
Email: ani@agmm.org
Website: http://www.armeniangenocidemuseum.org/

Description: Located in Washington, DC, the Armenian Genocide Museum of America (AGMA) will be the premier institution in the United States dedicated to educating American and international audiences about the Armenian Genocide and its continuing consequences. Visitors to the Museum will come to understand the Armenian Genocide as the prototype for modern crimes against humanity, including the Holocaust, Cambodia, Rwanda, and Darfur. The Museum is scheduled to open in 2011. (Retrieved from the museum’s website)