Peace Education: Peace Museums (1999)

Peace museums play an important role in the promotion and dissemination of UNESCO’s Culture of Peace program. This overview of existing peace museums throughout the world shows the variety in their origins and content. The survey comprises the first peace museums created by Jan Bloch and Ernst Friedrich, museums in Japan and Germany, and museums dedicated to individuals and to international organizations. It also discusses whether some of the numerous war museums can also be classified as peace museums and suggests that museums which deal with issues such as genocide, the Holocaust, abolition of slavery, or colonialism can be regarded as peace-related museums. The prospects for the further development of the field are addressed with reference to a number of peace museums planned in Africa, Europe, and North America.