The Museum’s Permanent Collection documents the fate of victims, survivors, rescuers, liberators, and others through millions of documents, artifacts, photos, films, and testimonies. Learn more about the scope of the collections.
The Museum is in a race against time to rescue the evidence of the Holocaust, including home movies and amateur films taken before, during, and immediately after the Holocaust.
How to Donate
Consult the list below to find out which items we collect.
Complete the online donation form, e-mail [email protected], or call 202.382.0220. The process may require additional documentation.
If you have home videos and/or films that you would like to donate, please visit the Home Movies Collections page for complete information.
Prior to donating to the Collection, it is important that you review the Museum’s Frequently Asked Questions page.
Do not send or bring your collection to the Museum without prior approval and instructions from a Curator. The Museum may dispose of, return, or retain unsolicited donations at its sole discretion.
About the Collection
The Museum’s Collection is about what happened during the Holocaust and to whom, as well as how and why the Holocaust happened, by whom, and the policies and events that made it possible. In order to properly understand the events associated with the Third Reich and its allies and the Nazi occupation of Europe within their historical context, the Collection focuses on the period 1933 through the closure of the Jewish Displaced Persons (DP) camps in the mid-1950s.
Types of Materials the Museum Collects
Collecting focuses on period documentation and eyewitness testimony, including:
Textual records, such as government documents, legal proceedings, institutional records, manuscripts, transcripts, personal papers, diaries, memoirs, musical notation, photograph albums, and correspondence
Three-dimensional materials, such as personal effects, furnishings, architectural fragments, ritual materials, jewelry, numismatics, models, machinery, tools, and other examples of material culture
Photographs
Film, such as moving image and photographic negatives
Printed material, such as pamphlets, broadsides, announcements, advertisements, posters, and maps
Textiles, such as uniforms, clothing, badges, armbands, flags, and banners
Recordings from the period, including on film, tape, or record albums, as well as digital copies on CDs, DVDs, or other mediums
Unpublished memoirs, either in hard copy or as digital files
Original period art, such as drawings, paintings, prints, sculpture, artistic posters, and other creative works that document the events of the Holocaust
Answers to common questions from our donors about legal gift agreements, appraisals, and more.
Not Collected by the Museum
Many materials that seem appropriate for the Museum’s Collection are out of scope:
Post-Period Art
The Museum does not acquire original works of art and other artistic expressions created after the Holocaust except under exceptional circumstances. Post-period commemorative or memorial artworks are outside the Museum’s collecting scope.
Copies
The Museum does not collect copies made during research, websites, podcasts, lectures, or non-original materials. The Museum does not accept photocopies or digital images of original material still in private hands or held by other institutions for the Permanent Collection. This includes research material compiled as part of a project or gathered throughout a career.
Citizenship Documentation
We recommend you retain original papers that establish citizenship in a European country, such as passports, identity cards, birth certificates, etc., or a United States Certificate of Naturalization if you think you or someone in your family may need these in the future for application of citizenship by descent or passport application/renewal. The Museum will not be able to return these materials to your custody.
US Army Signal Corps Liberation Photographs
Photographs of concentration camps taken by the US Army Signal Corps during or after liberation were widely distributed and brought home by US troops. For more information about liberation photographs and to view some common images, refer to this article. Curatorial staff will review your photographs to determine if the Collection holds a copy or similar images already represented in our holdings. Be prepared to provide the Curators with copies (including the back of the photo if it includes inscriptions), information about the photographer, geographic location, and dates (if known). The Museum may acquire photographs with handwritten notations on the verso.
Published material
Please contact the Museum Library directly regarding the donation of published works (such as books, pamphlets, etc.) at [email protected]
Weapons
The Museum does not collect Nazi or Allied military weaponry, including (but not limited to) guns, swords, daggers, and explosive devices.
This Section
Look through a curated list of frequently searched collection types and themes.