TY - JOUR TI - Witnesses of atrocity and the preservation of memory DO - https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3TB166J PY - 2011 AB - This thesis aims to explore the relationship between memorial museums and survivors, the moral and ethical obligations between them, and best practices regarding this relationship. Using three museums as case studies, the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Memorial and Museum, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the future National September 11 Memorial and Museum, I will discuss the existing policies that dictate the relationship between memorial museums and survivors. There are different types of relationships between survivors and a memorial museum which are generally determined by the survivor’s choice of how involved they want to be with the museum. This analysis will discuss measures that museums take to include survivors and the manner in which museums reach out to survivors. Additionally, the collecting practices of these museums will be explored in respect to how they address the acquisition of objects that could be considered personal property. This study will culminate in a set of recommendations for the relationship between memorial museums and survivors. The ethical issues surrounding the rights of survivors and museums’ plans for keeping them involved with the museum has applications in the creation of policy and codes of ethics in memorial museums in the United States and abroad. KW - Memorial Museums KW - Art History KW - Holocaust memorials--United States KW - Holocaust memorials--Poland KW - Memorials--New York (State)--New York KW - Holocaust survivors KW - Terrorism victims' families KW - Victims of terrorism LA - eng ER -