The creation of ghettos during World War II was a key part of Nazi plans to brutally persecute, separate, and eventually liquidate Europe’s Jewish population.

It was at Chełmno that the Nazis tested various methods of exterminating people en masse while they sought an alternative to the Einsatzgruppen’s mass shootings.

The first-floor galleries, In Honor of David W. Trott Finding Hope in a World Destroyed, honor the sacrifices of the WWII generation and explores the immense cost of war with exhibits on the Holocaust, Anne Frank, faith in wartime, and the Monuments Men and Women. Stories of both loss and liberation reveal the true horror of the conflict as victors and vanquished alike began the tough task of rebuilding their shattered world.

A special installation enabling visitors to have a one-on-one “conversation” with a WWII concentration camp liberator will be on view at The National WWII Museum starting February 4.

Tens of thousands of Allied civilians, including children, were caught in the crossfire of World War II in the Pacific and interned in camps such as Santo Tomas in the Philippines.