Analysis of Children's Visitor Comments at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Remember the Children: Daniel's Story Exhibit

ABSTRACT

Remember the Children: Daniel's Story , a permanent exhibition at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, follows a fictional Jewish boy living through the Holocaust in Germany. This novel exhibition is specifically designed for children, a rarity among programming in painful heritage sites. This article discusses the findings of a qualitative analysis of over 500 archived comments from visitors ages 12 and younger, which investigated how young visitors engaged with this exhibition. Comments comprised three themes: (a) comments about the exhibition, (b) expressions of one's experience, and (c) communication to others. Findings revealed that young visitors called on others to act and showed empathy for victims, often comforting Daniel. Children's misunderstandings were also evident in comments. These findings underscore the value of young visitor comments as dialogue with other visitors and museum staff. More broadly, the findings have implications for designing exhibitions in memory museums and expanding programming directed toward children.