The Impact of Emotions, Empathy, and Memory in Holocaust Exhibitions

Abstract

Holocaust exhibitions are places that evoke a wide range of emotions, imagination, and empathy as well as places for commemoration and remembering. This chapter focuses on how visitors respond and use Holocaust exhibitions in the UK through the lens of emotional engagement. It presents insights from an audience research study which was conducted with adult visitors of the Holocaust Exhibitions at the National Holocaust Centre and Museum in Nottinghamshire and at the Jewish Museum in London. It addresses the effect of emotional engagement on visitors’ understanding, feelings, and attitude in relation to past and its contemporary meaning. Based on visitors’ stories, this study shows that the interplay between identity, memory, empathy, personal, and social narratives played a central role in the way visitors construct meanings.