The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum was designed by the late architect James Ingo Freed, of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners. Mr. Freed visited a number of historical Holocaust sites, including several camps and ghettos, to examine their structures and materials. The Museum he built as a result is not a neutral shell. Instead, the architecture—through a collection of abstract forms both invented and drawn from memory—alludes to the history the Museum addresses.
![Light cast in the Hall of Witness. [LCID: how]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/3ba49816-ae4e-4c9d-b826-6f757e01aa06.jpg "Light cast in the Hall of Witness. [LCID: how]")
Light cast on architectural details in the Hall of Witness of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Item View![Detail of an interior bridge at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum with the names of victims etched in glass. [LCID: n02192]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/896a5164-4c7c-4005-b7ff-9807789dfa5a.jpg "Detail of an interior bridge at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum with the names of victims etched in glass. [LCID: n02192]")
Detail of an interior bridge at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum with the names of victims etched in glass. Washington, DC, 1996.
Item View![Visitors in the Hall of Witness at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. [LCID: n0420811]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/a440dfd2-ec13-4be2-901a-b90bdcb2b89b.jpg "Visitors in the Hall of Witness at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. [LCID: n0420811]")
Visitors in the Hall of Witness at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Washington, DC, 1998.
Item View![Visitors in the Hall of Witness at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. [LCID: n0421302]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/943e4a2b-844a-4c91-ab3f-23306847409f.jpg "Visitors in the Hall of Witness at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. [LCID: n0421302]")
Visitors in the Hall of Witness at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Washington, DC., April 1998.
Item View![The "You Are My Witnesses" wall in the Hall of Witness at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. [LCID: n09376]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/2faaee1a-4c93-4121-8971-e54e23681df2.jpg "The \"You Are My Witnesses\" wall in the Hall of Witness at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. [LCID: n09376]")
The "You Are My Witnesses" wall in the Hall of Witness at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Washington, DC, January 2003.
Item View![View of the six-sided skylight in the Hall of Remembrance at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. [LCID: n09377]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/cbfb7cae-3c97-496e-8738-e70825b7f733.jpg "View of the six-sided skylight in the Hall of Remembrance at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. [LCID: n09377]")
View of the six-sided skylight in the Hall of Remembrance at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Washington, DC, January 2003.
Item View![Detail of the 14th Street facade of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. [LCID: n09248]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/da4419bd-ed4e-4638-be55-b5a4d75b8365.jpg "Detail of the 14th Street facade of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. [LCID: n09248]")
Detail of the 14th Street facade of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Washington, DC, April 2003.
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Detail of the 14th Street facade of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Washington, DC, April 2003.
Item View![Visitors view the eternal flame in the Hall of Remembrance at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. [LCID: n0177501]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/831f8043-1d96-4066-9a92-337f00b4fa37.jpg "Visitors view the eternal flame in the Hall of Remembrance at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. [LCID: n0177501]")
Visitors view the eternal flame in the Hall of Remembrance at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Item View![Visitors in the Hall of Witness in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. [LCID: n0173702]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/29ed3fd4-aa16-450b-83b0-2ff8068c9430.jpg "Visitors in the Hall of Witness in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. [LCID: n0173702]")
Visitors in the Hall of Witness in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Photograph taken from the Museum's second floor. October 1994.
Item View![Third floor lounge in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. [LCID: lounge]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/a18a4477-0b5d-41ca-96ac-db2140014aa1.jpg "Third floor lounge in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. [LCID: lounge]")
Architectural details in the third floor lounge in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Item View![Photograph of exterior wall of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. [LCID: wall]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/a6c544bc-b123-46d1-bad4-74159f346f05.jpg "Photograph of exterior wall of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. [LCID: wall]")
Photograph of exterior wall of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Item View![The Meyerhoff Theater in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. [LCID: meyer]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/6f01863a-11fc-4485-8273-e291e7589232.jpg "The Meyerhoff Theater in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. [LCID: meyer]")
The Meyerhoff Theater in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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