Melbourne Holocaust Museum opens

The museum has been under construction for three years and will officially open its doors on Wednesday featuring two new exhibitions.

It was created in 1984 and functioned as a small education centre for school groups but the new larger building is open to all.

The permanent exhibition Everybody Had a Name is designed to be a uniquely Melbourne perspective of the six million lives lost during the Holocaust.

There is also a new immersive exhibition for children aged 10 and over, which follows the experiences of children who survived the Holocaust, called Hidden: Seven Children Saved.

The museum's chief executive Jayne Josem said great care had been taken to ensure the exhibitions are engaging for a broad variety of visitors.

"Put away any preconceived notions about museum exhibitions and encounter this powerful, inspiring and, dare I say, beautifully designed story space," Ms Josem said.

"Visitors will be rewarded for making the effort to confront this challenging subject, as they will surely leave the museum moved by the history, provoked by its messages and yet inspired to do better in the world today."

Experience design organisation Art Processors was involved in the new exhibition for children and purposely chose to showcase first-person accounts as they resonate best with audiences.

"We thought they should hear directly from other children," creative director Ariel Efron said.

"Therefore, we wrote, produced and recorded audio narratives of children retelling these stories, enabling young patrons to engage with the subject by literally listening to their contemporaries."

Australian Associated Press