LIBERATION PAVILION

The Liberation Pavilion, over the course of three floors, focuses on the closing months of the war and the immediate postwar years, connecting the lasting significance of the war to our lives today.

Liberation, located on the first floor, will address the atrocities of the Holocaust told through the written and oral testimonies of survivors, victims, and liberators. Visitors will explore in particular the story of Anne Frank, who for two years hid with her family and others to avoid deportation to a Nazi Death Camp. Ultimately captured, she left behind a diary that has touched the hearts of millions. The last segment of this exhibit will describe through first-person accounts the emotional moment when individuals, who had been captured by Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, regained their freedom. A major film production in the Liberation Theater will complement and personalize the exhibits.

A gallery dedicated to the story of the Monuments Men will introduce visitors to a group of men and women from thirteen nations who safeguarded and recovered European cultural treasures from the ravages of war.

Victory — Winning the Peace, on the second floor of the Pavilion, will immerse visitors in the whirlwind celebrations of V-E and V-J Days. Visitors will gain an understanding of the enormous elation that marked the Allied victory — a time when many young men realized they would be able to grow old. Galleries will present an in-depth look at the transition from war to peace and the challenges involved.

Fruits of Victory, the third floor exhibit, will examine the relevance of the war to us today. It will explore the many ways that World War II shaped our world, the values we hold dear, the technologies we rely upon and the global and domestic issues we confront today. Advances in technology, medicine, civil rights, women’s rights, industrial expansion, global economy and America’s cultural influence serve as legacies of the World War II era. Younger generations will better understand how the most defining event of the 20th century continues to inform and influence the present day.

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