Interactive Technology & the Exhibits

Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust’s interactive exhibits use technology to enhance the overall museum experience.

The World That Was Interactive Table

Located in the first room, The World That Was, a large computer touch-screen table depicts the intertwined and rich Jewish community existing before the Holocaust. Visitors can explore and touch digital artifacts and learn about the lives of European Jews before the Holocaust. As they do, the artifacts organize themselves according to the different parts of a community, including: education, religion, culture, sports, children, etc. For example, as a visitor touches a specific image of a Jewish family other images related to that family's life are shown. The artifacts available through the table include photographs, video segments, and text. When audio accompanies a video the audio can be accessed on the audio guide players distributed to visitors.

Interactive Concentration Camp Monitors

In the combined Deportation & Extermination and Labor/Concentration/Death Camps rooms, individual touch monitors allow visitors to learn about 18 different concentration camps. Each display allows visitors to discover general information relating to each camp. This information includes camp locations, architecture, and materials depicting life in camps. Some of the displays feature stories from survivors of the specific camp.

These interactive screens won a 2011 silver MUSE award from the American Association of Museums.

Audio Guide

The visitor Audio Guide ties together all of the physical and digital content throughout the Museum. Each visitor is given an Audio Guide player. This personal audio player enables visitors to explore images, documents and artifacts in greater depth. Visitors can access audio tracks associated with specific images, artifacts or video displays throughout the Museum. The Audio Guides also allow visitors to listen to music, poetry and audio from before, during and after the Holocaust.  Additionally, visitors can follow the stories of individuals affected by the Holocaust through printed guides available at the reception desk. These guides introduce visitors to an actual victim and directs visitors to the Museum artifacts & documents related to that person’s story. This multimedia experience allows visitors to learn about the Holocaust through the eyes of an individual that lived through it.  

LAMH's spatial audio guides won a 2011 gold MUSE award from the American Association of Museums.

Survivor Testimonial Wall

The Survivor Testimonial Wall, a dramatic array of video screens planned for the final room of the Museum tour, showcases the unbelievable stories of Holocaust survivors. Part monument and part informational presentation, this new digital display will allow visitors the opportunity to watch recorded interviews with different survivors.

A partnership with USC Shoah Foundation will enable the Museum to create a 65-screen video sculpture displaying all of the Institute’s nearly 52,000 video testimonies over the course of a single year. The video sculpture will further the Museum’s role as a leader in exhibit design and innovation. The video sculpture, unparalleled in scope, will occupy an entire wall of the Museum. Screens of varying sizes will be arrayed seemingly randomly across the wall. Each screen will display an individual interview. A splash screen will appear between interviews, providing the name and additional information about the interview that follows. Visitors will be able to listen to the synchronized audio of the interview through the Museum’s award-winning audio guides, distributed to each person touring the Museum complimentary with the already free admission.

LAMH plans to open this new exhibit in spring 2012.