Evoking the Sacred: Visual Holocaust Narratives in National Museums

This essay examines how Yad Vashem: The Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem and The Jewish Museum in Berlin move beyond the usual informative and communicative functions of museum exhibits to visually evoke sacred feelings in regard to Holocaust memory. Ideas and images of the sacred vary in the two museums, reflecting two very different memorial cultures and commemorative goals, and these contrasting contexts frame the analysis. Theoretically informed by religious and ritual studies, both sacred time and space are considered through close readings of museum architecture, visual exhibits and the movement of the visitor through the museums.