Narrating history in the museum: the Oslo Holocaust Centre, multiculturalism and human rights education
Abstract
Museums are implicated in the national project of identity formation; exhibition narratives can be reaffirming and equally contestable. Citizens confront culture, memory, history, and myth in the museum narrative which may enable a sense of belonging and inclusion or which may serve to exclude. I consider the extent to which the OHC can be understood as a project which supports and promotes an inclusive Norwegian national identity. The museum tells of Norway’s Nazi occupation during the Second World War and of the arrest and deportation of Norwegian Jewish citizens to death camps with the connivance of fellow-citizens as either actors or bystanders. The story challenges the dominant Norwegian narrative of the war period. I reflect on ways in which museum visitors experience a diverse portrayal of Norwegian nationality, in line with the national story of commitment to human rights and multiculturalism. My thesis seeks to establish whether there is a new identifiable Norwegian national consciousness evolving from the narrative of the Centre, as presented in its exhibition, regarding the experiences of Norwegian Jews during the Second World War. The key research question considered is: How is the Oslo Holocaust Museum contributing to the narrative of the national story of Norway in relation to human rights education and multiculturalism? Data was collected by means of semi structured interviews from 7 key OHC staff and from a sample of 20 English-speaking visitors to the museum, who were interviewed in July and August 2011. Questions focused on visitors’ perceptions of the exhibition in general and on their understandings of its messages for and about Norway today. My argument is that the OHC narrative, premised on human rights and democratic values, has the potential to contribute to a deeper understanding of common citizenship and human rights in a Norway that is increasingly becoming multicultural