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About the Museum

Holocaust Education Research and Evaluation

Over the years, individuals and organizations, including the Museum, have conducted surveys, evaluations, and informal research often in order to evaluate the effectiveness of their work in Holocaust Education and make improvements. While a small number of these efforts have examined practices at the national level, the field lacks regular, high-quality research that can provide actionable knowledge to help all practitioners develop and improve their educational approaches with a variety of learners/students. And there have been only a few peer-reviewed research projects to study and assess teaching and learning about the Holocaust.

Building Education Research Capacity 

As the nation’s Holocaust museum, mandated by Congress to serve the country, the Museum is uniquely suited to create a sustained, rigorous research program aimed at supporting all our partners and improving teaching and learning about the Holocaust. This includes working with the Association of Holocaust Organizations (AHO) as well as with US and other governmental entities who share a similar mandate, including the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), the Office of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA).

Education Research and Evaluation Projects

Over the past 30 plus years, the Museum has worked with outside firms to conduct audience research and evaluations of its programs, resources, and exhibitions as well as one research study about the field of Holocaust education. Each of these projects was developed at a particular moment in time for the limited purpose of improving our own work. Given the Museum’s commitment to help build and support the field of Holocaust education and the growing interest in the impact of teaching and learning about the Holocaust, especially in light of the rise in antisemitism globally, we have decided to make them accessible online.

We encourage all who wish to learn from the Museum’s body of work thus far to consider:

  • The dangers of drawing conclusions based on the findings of any one individual study;

  • The importance of having a wide variety of studies with different purposes, methodologies, audiences, etc.;

  • The ongoing need for high quality scholarly education research on teaching and learning about the Holocaust which is largely absent from the field until now;

  • The need to tap research and insights from other fields (i.e. history education, youth development, informal learning, etc.) to improve Holocaust education;

  • The fact that Holocaust education practitioners design programs, resources, and classroom experiences to support different purposes; and

  • The importance of context for these studies, especially given that we live in a rapidly changing environment.

Reports

An Evaluation of Educational Resources from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (2024)

Ukrainian Student Digital Tool Project (2020–2021)

Revitalizing the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) Main Exhibition Audience Insights and Starting Points for Design (2018) Who’s Coming? Core Survey (2018) Experiencing History Digital Resource Tool Evaluation Report (2018)

Understanding Teens’ Perceptions of the Holocaust: Experiencing the Some Were Neighbors Exhibition (2015)

Imagine the Unimaginable: Ending Genocide in the 21st Century: Opinion Poll (2012) From Memory to Action: Standing Up to Genocide Today: Exhibition Evaluation (2012) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) Teacher-training Program Assessment (2012)

Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals 1933–1945 Traveling Exhibition Survey Report (2011) State of Deception: The Power of Nazi Propaganda Evaluation to Inform Development of Traveling Exhibition (2011)

Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race at the Jewish Museum Berlin (2009)

Knowing Better, Stepping Up, Taking Action: Personal Transformation that Leads to Social Change: An evaluation of Bringing the Lessons Home (2008)

Museum Family Guide: Prototype Evaluation (2007)

Belfer Conference for Educators Evaluation (2006)

Report of Findings on Focus Groups Qualitative Research (2005) Evaluation of the Permanent Exhibition (2005)

National Teacher Survey of Secondary Teaching Practices in Holocaust Education (2004)

For inquiries regarding these reports, please email education@ushmm.org.