Current and Past Exhibitions on Contemporary Mass Atrocities

The in-person exhibition explores how the Rohingya, a religious and ethnic minority in Burma, went from citizens to outsiders—and became targets of a sustained campaign of genocide. It features audio, video, photography, and first-person testimony. Visit the exhibition.

The online version of the exhibition includes five chapters detailing the history of persecution in Burma as well as the personal stories, in their own words, of nine Rohingya individuals who survived the violent attacks in 2017. It also provides lesson plans for educators. Explore the online exhibition.

For nearly 14 years, Syria's Assad regime committed mass atrocities, killing hundreds of thousands, displacing millions, and detaining an estimated 100,000 people. Hear one survivor’s testimony of his experience being tortured in detention and his courageous efforts to share evidence of these crimes with the world.

This two-part exhibition on Cambodia examines how the Khmer Rouge perpetrated one of the greatest crimes of the 20th century and the quest for justice in the decades since. Nearly two million people died under the rule of the fanatical Communist movement, which imposed a ruthless agenda of forced labor, thought control, and mass execution of Cambodia citizens.

This exhibition enabled Museum visitors to speak directly with people who had fled genocide committed by ISIS in Northern Iraq and the mass atrocity crimes of Syria’s Assad regime and who found refuge in Iraq, Jordan, and Germany.

This exhibition used cutting-edge technology and powerful eyewitness testimony from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Rwanda, and Sudan to teach that genocide did not end with the Holocaust. It engaged visitors in an effort to build a community of people committed to stopping and preventing this crime.  

Visitors learned about these genocides through first-hand accounts, videos, photographs, and case studies. An interactive table enabled visitors to download exhibition content and share their experience through social networking tools. Visitors were able to make a pledge to take action against genocide and join a worldwide community engaged in this effort. Pledges from across the globe were displayed on a dynamic pledge wall.  

The Museum’s Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide focuses on threats of large-scale, group-targeted, identity-based persecution potentially rising to the level of genocide. Learn about some of the cases on which we work.