Toronto Holocaust Museum

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Each Gallery uses a carefully curated approach that blends historical photographs and artifacts with contextual descriptions and compelling interactives to offer a diverse and nuanced exploration of the Holocaust that promotes Jewish voices, agency, and experience. At the heart of this experience are voices of Canadian Holocaust survivors who tell of devastation, loss, resistance, and courage. These are accessible via hundreds of short testimony clips prominently featured in large-scale interactive stations located throughout the galleries. The Museum text, drawn from contemporary scholarship, best practices, and a peer review process, frames the subject with a nuanced telling of the broader events. Digital timelines and maps situate the experience in time and geography, and historical photographs chosen for their complexity and storytelling offer a visual understanding of the broader historical experience. Panels that share the concurrent events taking place in Canada offer additional, local context and opportunities for visitor meaning making. These components come together to engage the visitor, guiding them to explore and consider the legacy of the Holocaust that reverberates today. The experience avoids providing simple accounts of complex events and is designed to stimulate further learning and exploration. Ultimately, the visitor is inspired to continue learning about the Holocaust and its ongoing relevance.

Throughout the Museum questions guide the experience recognizing and reinforcing for learners that the Holocaust was carried out by individuals and it happened to individuals – real people. These questions remind us that agency and choices are key not only to this history but to our lives today. Visitors are presented with nuanced questions that explore the core of human behaviour and inspire self reflection and their roles in civil society. Most importantly, they reinforce that the Holocaust did not just happen. It took many people, choices and circumstances for things to turn out the way it did and that the Jewish people resisted myriad and unbelievable ways.

Various touchpoints throughout the exhibition explore the diversity and richness of life before the Holocaust. Beginning in the Azrieli Legacy Hall (Mezzanine), before entering into the Museum, visitors are surrounded by photo banners showcasing Jewish life across Europe. Also situated in the Mezzanine, is the first of 11 Holocaust survivor testimony stations. This station introduces visitors to the interactive experience they will encounter throughout the Museum and allows them to delve into the lives of individuals and communities prior to the Holocaust. Prewar life is also explored in the Theatre through A Tapestry of Moments: Jewish Life Before the Holocaust, an immersive film experiences surrounding the visitor in video, sounds, and imagery showcasing the breadth of Jewish life.