Submitted by Olivia-Jane Haslam on the 2017 winter session program in London, England sponsored by the Department of History…
Wandering around the Imperial War Museum is not generally thought of as something pleasant to do on a Sunday afternoon. However, along with myself there were a multitude of people who had the same idea. The Imperial War Museum, for those who do not know, is a British museum dedicated to the beginning of modern warfare and to continuing to cover modern war even to this day. When arriving at the museum, a large two cannon artillery piece greets visitors. It defines what they will see inside, that of war and the beginning of the change in warfare to what we know of it today.
And yet, it is different from war museums in the United States. To begin with, walking into the museum it is clear that the focus is on the past and how it has influenced the future, unlike in the United States. There is nothing that screams that this is focused exclusively on a British perspective which can also be seen in the inclusion of uniforms from countries such as Russia, France and Germany in their World War I exhibit. While the perspective the museum takes is that of a British one, it is not always painting Britain in a positive light. There are times where Britain can do no wrong and times where all it can do is wrong.
An example would be within their Holocaust exhibit. A beautiful exhibit that chronicles the Holocaust from the troubling period between World War I and World War II with the rise of antisemitism through the Holocaust and even takes a glance at what lies beyond the atrocity of that time. Once I progressed partially through the exhibit, there were signs of when news began leaking out of the continent into Britain about the undertakings of the Nazis. The curators gave visitors the chance to understand why nothing had been done to stop the Nazis and why the atrocities were not stopped sooner than 1945. In difference to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the British and Allies are not painted in the light of saviors, but the in the light of soldiers who cannot believe what they are seeing. They are not there to save those imprisoned because they knew, they are there because there is war and the camps could hold their people. The horrors of the Holocaust are laid out in such brisk understanding that there is little detail lost in giving visitors the knowledge they need to understand the event and what it still means to this day.
The museum’s focus on World War I is also large. Their exhibit chronicles the war from before it began by explaining the entangled situation on the European continent. It continues its story through the use of propaganda from the time and actual artifacts used in the war. The story weaves through the four long years of war and even includes the chance to walk through a replica of a trench, minus the hell that those brought to the soldiers stationed in them. Detail is everywhere and nothing is missed in detailing what happened during the war. The curators even included videos made by students to explain what the war means to them now, in the 21st century. All in all, the exhibit brings home the misery of World War I and explains how it began what is today considered modern warfare.
Even war today is considered to be relevant in the museum’s story. The shell of a car used as a bomb in Iraq is on display in the main lobby, a symbol of how war is still very alive in today’s world.