The world’s most important memorial museums

These memorial museums and remembrance halls demonstrate that cultural awareness, public education and honoring memory can, at least in part, aid the recovery process.

Japan | Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum

An oasis of tranquility in the heart of Hiroshima, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum honors the memory of those who lost their lives during the American atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Kenzo Tange and constructed in 1955, a decade after the indescribable explosions killed over 200,000 Japanese civilians, the memorial hall preserves objects that once belonged to the victims, including personal items like a watch that stopped when the first explosion occurred, and materials showing Hiroshima and its residents before, and after the attacks. The museum is surrounded by a sculpture garden and exhibition space, where historic architectural elements meet the forward-looking modernism in a setting that is both mindful of its history, and optimistic about the future.

Cambodia | Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

Tuol Sleng, also known as the Security Prison-21, was one of the most infamous detention centers of the Khmer Rouge regime, a building where almost 20,000 people were tortured and killed in the four years of the regime’s existence, most of them innocent civilians. Today, the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum conveys the atrocities of that time with undeniable directness, its collection of poignant photographs taken by the Khmer Rouge, torture devices and human skulls creating a narrative that strikes the visitor with its intimate, bone-chilling tragedy. Along with the notorious Killing Fields of Choeung Ek, Tuol Sleng is one of the few existing reminders of the bloodiest chapter in Cambodia’s history.

Israel | Yad Vashem

Erected in 1953, four short years after the establishment of the Israeli state, Yad Vashem stands as a monument to the Jewish people, the six million who perished in the Holocaust, those who fought, and those who survived. As a research and education facility, Yad Vashem’s schedule revolves around talks, ceremonies and events to deepen public understanding of a people’s struggle to survive in a hostile world. At the heart of the 45-acre site sits the Museum complex, including the Holocaust History Museum, Hall of Names, Museum of Holocaust Art and more, which are collectively visited by over one million people per year. There is also a more symbolic dimension to Yad Vashem: at the center of the Moshe Safdie-designed museum sits the Hall of Remembrance, a basalt-covered space engraved with the names of Nazi concentration camps, and illuminated by a single eternal flame, beyond which the ashes of the Holocaust victims are stored.

China | Nanjing Massacre Memorial Museum

Although it lasted only six weeks, the 1937 Nanking Massacre (or the Rape of Nanking) was one of the most painful episodes in Chinese history, where around 200,000 Chinese were robbed, raped and slaughtered by the invading Japanese army. The Nanjing Massacre Memorial Museum stands on top of one of the biggest burial sites of the time, its roots and exhibitions bound profoundly to the fate of the victims. Surrounded by symbolic sculptures in the outdoor exhibition space, the interior of this tomb-like museum houses a vast, coffin-shaped memorial containing the victims’ bones, as well as a hall where historic documents and photographs are stored.

Read more: The incredible and unique museums in Shanghai, China

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