The museum tells the story of the Holocaust through the lives of individual victimised men, women, and children.

In his opening speech the king stated that the museum "brings to life the stories of people who were isolated from the rest of Dutch society, robbed of their rights, denied legal protection, rounded up, imprisoned, separated from their loved ones and murdered," identifying the root cause as antisemitism.

The opening was broadcast live on Dutch national television and covered extensively by the international press.

[3] The opening ceremony on 10 March was held in the Portuguese Synagogue and attended by foreign dignitaries.

Three-quarters of the country's Jews, the highest percentage in Western Europe, in total 102,000 people, were killed during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during 1940–1945.