The paper analyzes some characteristics of three representative Holocaust memorial museums, comparing their process of building, form of architectural representation, and strategies of narrative: the Jewish Museum in Berlin, Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, and the U. S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D. C.. In the process of building of three Holocaust memorial museum are reflected certain political intentions of the initiators. There were controversies between various social and political groups around the location of museum and the form of architectural representation. To represent the past event beyond our intellectual understanding, the architects designed the museums in unique and spectacular ways. Daniel Libeskind, the architect of the Jewish Museum, adapted deconstructivism to visualize the destruction of Jewish life. Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum designed by Moshe Safdie should be underground, with a subtle cut across the hilltop - a narrow skylight coming up for light, a reflective knife edge across the landscape that would disclose the museum’s space. For James Ingo Freed, the architect of the U. S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the new museum shouldbe a resonator of memory. To create a very unusual atmosphere, he made, for example, a huge transition space(the Hall of Witness) which consists of red brick walls and dark-grey steel structures. All the three Holocaust memorial museums are story telling museums. The Jewish Museum in Berlin emphasizes collective responsibility regarding the murder of European Jews by Germans. The focal point of Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum is laid upon the victims, founding of the Jewish nation-state, and the resistance against the Nazis. The U. S. Holocaust Memorial Museum tries to stress the meaning of the Holocaust for contemporary American society.

The paper analyzes some characteristics of three representative Holocaust memorial museums, comparing their process of building, form of architectural representation, and strategies of narrative: the Jewish Museum in Berlin, Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, and the U. S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D. C.. In the process of building of three Holocaust memorial museum are reflected certain political intentions of the initiators. There were controversies between various social and political groups around the location of museum and the form of architectural representation. To represent the past event beyond our intellectual understanding, the architects designed the museums in unique and spectacular ways. Daniel Libeskind, the architect of the Jewish Museum, adapted deconstructivism to visualize the destruction of Jewish life. Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum designed by Moshe Safdie should be underground, with a subtle cut across the hilltop - a narrow skylight coming up for light, a reflective knife edge across the landscape that would disclose the museum’s space. For James Ingo Freed, the architect of the U. S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the new museum shouldbe a resonator of memory. To create a very unusual atmosphere, he made, for example, a huge transition space(the Hall of Witness) which consists of red brick walls and dark-grey steel structures. All the three Holocaust memorial museums are story telling museums. The Jewish Museum in Berlin emphasizes collective responsibility regarding the murder of European Jews by Germans. The focal point of Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum is laid upon the victims, founding of the Jewish nation-state, and the resistance against the Nazis. The U. S. Holocaust Memorial Museum tries to stress the meaning of the Holocaust for contemporary American society.

Berlin, the Jewish Museum, Jerusalem, Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, the U. S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington