United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

The museum opened in April 1993 after a decade of planning led by a presidentially appointed commission. Its permanent exhibition, “The Holocaust,” occupies three floors and uses artifacts, photographs, film, and survivor testimonies to document the rise of the Nazi regime, the progression of persecution, and the systematic murder of six million Jews along with millions of others.

The building, designed by James Ingo Freed, incorporates architectural elements that echo the industrial brutality of the camps — exposed brick and steel, surveillance windows, and claustrophobic passageways. A glass-roofed Hall of Remembrance at the building’s center provides a space for individual reflection and candle lighting in memory of victims.