US Holocaust Memorial Council

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is AmericaÕs national institution for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust history, and serves as this countryÕs memorial to the millions of people murdered during the Holocaust.

A living memorial to the Holocaust, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum stimulates leaders and citizens to confront hatred, prevent genocide, promote human dignity, and strengthen democracy. Located among our national monuments to freedom on the National Mall, the Museum provides a powerful lesson in the fragility of freedom, the myth of progress, the need for vigilance in preserving democratic values. With unique power and authenticity, the Museum teaches millions of people each year about the dangers of unchecked hatred and the need to prevent genocide. And we encourage them to act, cultivating a sense of moral responsibility among our citizens so that they will respond to the monumental challenges that confront our world. Today we face an alarming rise in Holocaust denial and antisemitismÑeven in the very lands where the Holocaust happenedÑas well as genocide and threats of genocide in other parts of the world. All of this when we are soon approaching a time when Holocaust survivors and other eyewitnesses will no longer be alive. Since its dedication in 1993, the Museum has welcomed nearly 30 million visitors, including more than 8 million school children and 85 heads of state. Today 90 percent of the MuseumÕs visitors are not Jewish, and our Web site, the worldÕs leading online authority on the Holocaust, had 25 million visits in 2008 from an average of 100 different countries daily. Source: www.ushmm.org