The Melbourne Holocaust Museum is Australia’s foremost institution solely dedicated to Holocaust education, research, and remembrance. The Collections Department actively collects, houses, and presents original artefacts and testimonies, mostly donated by Melbourne’s Holocaust survivors and their families.
We encourage all Holocaust survivors and their families to donate original items, as these primary-source artefacts contribute to research and education.
What we collect
The Melbourne Holocaust Museum collects items from the rise of Nazism, the Holocaust/WWII era, and the immediate post-war era.
Items that reflect all elements of Jewish life pre-1930s are also collected where appropriate. The MHM documents, digitises, and preserves items in conservation-grade housings and storage facilities.
Items we collect include: official documents, historical artworks, letters, diaries, photographs, and items from concentration camps and ghettos, including uniforms and identifiers.
We accept Nazi and related artefacts by consultation only. The MHM encourages the removal of these items from public circulation. These objects may be used for educational purposes.
We collect unpublished and published memoirs, and we encourage donors to contribute historical documentation of their family’s items. The MHM also records survivor testimonies.
Click here to enquire about recording your testimony at MHM.
What we do not collect
The MHM avoids collecting reproductions of historical items (particularly when the original artefact is in another repository or private collection), including photographic reprints, photocopies, or printed materials from other archives and museums or from the internet, or items where ownership or sole copyright cannot be confirmed.
The MHM does not collect independently recorded survivor interviews or films and other audiovisual productions, including commercial or independent films, or radio or television interviews in part or whole. We do encourage copyright owners to put these materials on YouTube or a similar publicly accessible platform online to allow worldwide access.
