The National WWII Museum in New Orleans LA will open the Liberation Pavilion, its final permanent exhibit hall, and officially dedicate the Col. Battle Barksdale Parade Ground, an outdoor gathering space in the heart of the New Orleans campus, on Nov. 3, 2023.
The completion of the Liberation Pavilion comes in time for the last surviving members of the WWII generation to experience what has been built in their honor. The November celebration will mark the completion of the $400 million Road to Victory Capital Campaign that has propelled the extraordinary growth of the Museum’s campus from one exhibit hall to seven pavilions over the past two decades. The public announcement of this historic milestone capped off the Museum’s June 6 commemorations of the 79th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy and the 23rd anniversary of the Museum’s Grand Opening.
Liberation Pavilion explores the end of World War II, the Holocaust, the postwar years and how the war continues to impact our lives today. The three-story pavilion, made possible through the generous support of private donors and the State of Louisiana, houses two floors of exhibit space featuring first-person accounts, iconic imagery, powerful artifacts and immersive environments, as well as a third-floor theater offering audiences a brand-new cinematic experience.
The Pavilion’s first floor galleries, Finding Hope in a World Destroyed, will honor the sacrifices of the WWII generation and explore the immense cost of war with exhibits on the Holocaust, Anne Frank, faith in wartime, and the Monuments Men and Women. The first floor will also include a panoramic theater with personal testimonies from Holocaust survivors and the US forces who liberated them as well as an interfaith chapel to provide a quiet space for contemplation.
The second floor of Liberation, the Goldring Family Foundation and Woldenberg Foundation Forces of Freedom at Home and Abroad (1945–Present), will explore the war’s impact in the postwar period and its lasting legacies today. Exhibits will examine the rebuilding efforts of a world destroyed, the war crimes trials, the emergence of the US as a world “superpower,” movements for social change and civil rights, new technological innovations and the war’s impact on foreign policy. An interactive gallery will provide a reflective space for visitors to voice their thoughts on the war’s legacy and what it means today.
More information here.
