Prejudiced, historical witness, and responsible: Collective memory and liminality in the Beit Hashoah museum of tolerance

In terms of collective memory, few issues match the import of the representation of the Holocaust and the ways in which such collective memory is presented is often fraught with controversy. A recent controversial site of memory is the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. This essay examines the representational strategies of the museum, arguing that its critics have failed to consider important aspects of the museum's representational practices. Specifically, the museum's representation of the Holocaust involves liminality, structured to engage audiences, preserving the Holocaust as a profoundly important historical event while emphasizing personal responsibility in the prevention of hatred, violence, and genocide. By exploring the museum's novel approach of leading visitors through breach, liminality, and reintegration, we may better understand the ways in which historical presentations can accentuate a liminal and thus a potentially significant experience with the past, and we may learn more about how collective remembrance can be promoted to encourage contemporary responsibility.

Key concepts:

• museums
• liminality
• Holocaust
• collective memory