Second World War and Holocaust Galleries

Excellent refurbishment of two sets of galleries at the Imperial War Museum, the Second World War galleries and the Holocaust Galleries.

Both galleries were beautifully designed leading you chronically through the period with sections on themes such as The Home Front. The narrative was told simply but was not dumbed down and used objects to help tell the story. The objects were often linked to people and there were no object labels as the narrative described them.

I thought a change in the Second World War galleries was that they were now aimed at people born since the war. I think the previous version was as much a stimulator of memories and conversations and I remember going around with my own parents who were children of the Liverpool Blitz. The ARP uniform shown here is in honour of my grandfather who was a member.

The Holocaust galleries were sympathetically described. They didn’t shy away from the horrors but did broaden the topic to look at its origins and effects. I loved the opening gallery which looked at Jewish life in Europe before the Second World War with wonderful photographs and stories. The whole display was very moving but I was particularly honoured to hear one lady tell her friend that a note in one display sent to someone who had escaped Germany before the war was a family piece and the contents were still read out at every Bar Mitzvah in the family. 

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