Angels in the Temple

Abstract

Prior to the opening of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., in 1993, critics voiced concerns about the appropriateness of locating a museum of European mass genocide within the Washington Mall, a space of national pedagogy devoted to celebrating the history and achievements of the U.S. nation-state. However, representing the Holocaust in terms of U.S. national identity has been a central preoccupation of the museum's planners and curators from its inception. The museum (fig. 1) not only tells a story about America's role in the Holocaust, but provides a lesson in how to be a good citizen in the U.S. today. As the project director during planning and construction stated