About Us

National Museums NI is one of eight regional partners in the Second World War and Holocaust Partnership Programme led by Imperial War Museums and supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

In redeveloping their own Second World War and Holocaust galleries, IWM have been keen to include personal stories and emphasise the global reach of the war. Partners have also been tasked with exploring local and lesser-known stories.

In response we have developed Searchlight. This website aims to cast a light on the experiences of individuals in a way that connects to a wider picture. Our collections are at the core, and we’ve woven together stories from objects, documents, photographs, paintings, newspapers and oral histories.

Your Stories, our final section, is a community submission area.  Some of these stories come from our community outreach programme, but we hope more people will want to share their objects and stories, and help bring to life the Second World War experiences of local people and their families.

You can learn more about the Second World War and Holocaust Partnership Programme here.

This website is being externally evaluated as part of the wider Programme. Please complete this survey to send your feedback.