Into Darkness: Affect and Dark Space in Holocaust Exhibitions

Since 1990, many Holocaust exhibitions have featured dark spaces. This article considers the development of these dark spaces and their display function at two institutions: the Holocaust Exhibition at the Imperial War Museum, London and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington DC. By examining shifts in exhibition lighting, a correlation can be found between brighter displays addressing the broad sociopolitical context of Nazism and darker displays focusing more on individual experiences of the death camps. Drawing from phenomenology and museology, this article argues that museums utilize darkness to lead visitors to particular affective experiences and to provoke inquiry into the meanings of the Holocaust.