Our new human rights exhibition, ‘The Holocaust and Human Rights’, was developed to provoke engagement with contemporary human rights issues in Australia against the backdrop of the Museum’s Holocaust exhibition. This extension of our Holocaust content aimed to bring the Museum into the national and global conversation about human rights.

The exhibition takes as its starting point the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, which was deemed necessary following the criminal acts of genocide perpetrated against civilians by the Nazis in the 1940s. The exhibition brings this content into a contemporary context to encourage visitors to connect with current issues and learn about all facets of the human rights violations, successes and debates.

The exhibition was researched and developed by a team of academics, educators, curators and designers over three years, with the assistance and support from a grant from the Australian Research Council. The 'Holocaust and Human Rights' was officially opened by Australian Human Rights Commissioner Edward Santow in February 2018

Invest in the future of the Sydney Jewish Museum in our Capital Appeal

As time passes there are fewer Holocaust survivors left to tell their stories of both horror and hope. The survivors and the stories that they have continued to pass on to Museum visitors have been fundamental in ensuring that we remember the Holocaust. Technologies, testimonial projects, preservation of artefacts, and educating students and teachers help us secure the stories of our treasured survivors, so their voices never lose their poignancy.

We are now holding our Capital Appeal, where we are asking you to invest in the future of the Sydney Jewish Museum and the voices of history that we preserve.

The Museum receives no Government funding, and cannot exist on membership and entry fees alone. Your support will ensure we can keep our survivors’ voices alive for future generations.

The Sydney Jewish Museum’s free app, SJM Voices, offers the opportunity to listen to the testimonies of Holocaust survivors, perpetrators, witnesses and experts. Listen to the voices of history on your device as you move through the Museum.

SJM Voices is a custom curated app that uses an internal global positioning system to bring testimony and story of the Holocaust into the present within the Museum’s walls.

Drawing on the Museum’s rich repository of survivor testimony, the app embeds survivor narrative alongside stories from perpetrators and witnesses. The app delivers personal and multi-perspective insight into this turbulent period of history.

Once you’ve visited the Museum and used the app, email yourself a record of your journey.

You can download the app to your iPhone ahead of time via the link below. If you have an Android phone, pick up a compatible device at admissions upon arrival at the Museum.

Please note, the SJM Voices app only works in the Museum.