Yad Layeled at the Ghetto Fighters' House: A Museum about Children in the Holocaust or a Museum for Children about the Holocaust?. Issue 3 (1st September 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Heidecker, Nadav
• Is Part Of: Dapim. Volume 30:Issue 3(2016)
• Page Start: 274
• Page End: 281
• Publication Date: 2016-09-01
• Subjects: Yad Layeled -- Ghetto Fighters' House -- museum development -- children's museums -- Holocaust memorials; Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Periodicals; Electronic journals; 940.5318
• DOI: 10.1080/23256249.2016.1240845
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2325-6249

Abstract

Abstract : The ' Yad Layeled ' Museum at the Ghetto Fighters' House (GFH) in Israel, inaugurated in 1995, realized a longtime vision of the GFH founders to establish a memorial site for the children that perished in the Holocaust. The initiators, from the management, through the architects, to the designers and curators, pondered over the general concept of such a museum. What exactly is the need that this museum intended to address – a memorial site for the child victims or an educational institution for today's children? This question was answered differently in the various stages of the project, and had a profound effect on the museum's design and performance ever since. The museum, whose layout started as a somber monument for the murdered children, has become a creative educational institution that aims to transmit the experience of the Holocaust to its young audiences. Using documents held in the GFH Archives that concern the establishment of Yad Layeled, this article follows the process from its conceptual stage to its final form.