The permanent exhibition of the Holocaust Memorial Center, “From Deprivation of Rights to Genocide” is displayed across 1,500 square meters in the basement exhibition hall of the building complex.

The refurbished synagogue, particularly its gallery, is used for temporary exhibitions.

Architect István Mányi placed the exhibition of the Hungarian Holocaust in an underground space to indicate that the history on display was a dark period in human ethics and morality. The interior design elements of the space, such as the sloping floor and the columns dividing the space, further reinforce this message by drawing visitors into the events and vividly illustrating how the process that began on the slope reaches its lowest point: mass murder.

“Designing the permanent exhibition was not our task, but within the system of spatial relationships, we established its conceptual and physical framework, because without it, the building itself cannot be understood.

We envisioned a thematic space where, with its sloping surfaces, pillars tilting away from the vertical, and slanted ceilings, we begin with the historical context of the first anti-Jewish law, the numerus clausus, and proceed through the ramp of roundup, past the scream-like, right-angled break, to the heart-wrenching narrowing that symbolizes the deportation itself, and finally to the depiction of the Holocaust.

From the flight of stairs rising from here, the image of the restored Torah ark appears as a distant sign. As you ascend, the space opens up — the restored synagogue hall, a place of remembrance and repose. Catharsis."

Architect István Mányi