Air Force Museum
Prejudice & Memory
Prejudice & Memory uses survivor testimony, servicemembers' accounts, and original artifacts to examine persecution, liberation, and remembrance. The exhibition places Holocaust history within a military museum by showing what American forces encountered as they advanced into Germany and why the objects they brought home became evidence for later generations.
In depth
History & service
It is one of the few such exhibits in the U.S. compiled to demonstrate one community's connection with this terrible event and to affirm the belief that learning about the Holocaust is the first step toward preventing its recurrence.
Download the Holocaust Exhibit Pamphlet to supplement your tour through the Holocaust Exhibit.
Details that tell the story
Built around first-person accounts and original objects · Connects military service with camp liberation · Examines the consequences of organized prejudice
What survives after the mission
A museum object begins a second life when it stops performing its original job. An aircraft that once carried a crew becomes a place for public memory. A jacket, letter, medal, or small piece of equipment can preserve a much more intimate connection. The object is valuable both for what it reveals physically and for the documented story that gives it meaning.
Famous aircraft and individuals can make a complicated history approachable, but they are only part of it. Many people left no celebrated machine behind. Memorials, personal possessions, unit records, and photographs help recover the experiences of those whose service was less visible. They also preserve loss, separation, captivity, recovery, and the consequences of war for families and communities.
Preservation involves choices. Restoring an aircraft may make its design easier to understand, while retaining wear or damage may protect evidence of its use. A reproduction can explain how a machine worked, provided its identity remains clear. Linking objects across collections helps fill the gaps created when surviving material is dispersed. A uniform in one gallery, an aircraft in another, and a memorial elsewhere can illuminate the same history from different directions. The result is more than a record of machines: it is a way to keep the people, decisions, and experiences connected to them in view.
