One of the basic guidelines for the museum’s design was to create a visitor’s route dictated by the evolving narrative, with a beginning, middle and end. A central 180-meter walkway (prism) was built with exhibition galleries on either side. Between the exhibition galleries are impassable gaps extending along the breadth of the prism floor. These gaps constitute a physical obstacle, guiding the visitor into the adjacent galleries, yet always enabling eye contact with either end of the prism. The prism is therefore a longitudinal axis of historical memory, crossed by the visitors as they move from one gallery to the next and from one subject to another. The displays, filled with original artifacts, documentation, testimonies, film, literature, diaries, letters, and works of art, emphasize the unique human stories of the Jewish population in Europe during those terrible years.
Presented in this section is an overview of each gallery including descriptions, views from the galleries and featured artifacts and art from each gallery.
The New Museum contains some one hundred video screens showing survivor testimonies and short films. Directors:Reuven Hecker, Ayelet Heler, Noemi Schory. Producer: Liran Atzmor.