Today we visited the Illinois
Holocaust Museum in Skokie. I knew before arriving that this would be an
emotional day for me, as I often find myself crying when discussing topics such
as the Holocaust. When we first arrived, we sat downstairs in the basement to
hear Mrs. Magda Brown’s story. While visiting the museum is an amazing
experience in itself, talking to someone who actually went through the
Holocaust was even more amazing. When Magda explained the systematic way this
entire atrocity was done, it became very unsettling. While I was aware of the
concentration camps, I was not aware that they started out by talking, moved
then to boycotting of Jewish businesses, to relocating Jewish people and
confiscating their money and valuables, and then to relocating them again for
extermination. I have a hard time wrapping my head around how this happened. It
is difficult to understand how human beings allowed this to take place without
trying to stop it. People just followed Hitler blindly, and I cannot understand
why. Why are the Jewish people always the scapegoat?
While we were taught about the
Holocaust in school, the museum offered more detailed information. I read about
Hitler’s rise to power and his insane beliefs about a “perfect race.” A more detailed account of the horrendous
conditions and treatment was also something I had heard very little about when
this subject was taught in school. Hearing about people being shoved in a box
car with only one bucket for water and one for elimination was absolutely
disgusting. How people could treat other people this way is beyond my thought
processes. In the museum you are able to view and step inside an actual box car
that was used during this time. When I stepped inside I tried to imagine how
they shoved eighty plus people in that box car along with two buckets.
The museum also had information on the world’s slow reaction time to these horrific crimes being committed in Germany. One newspaper article displayed in the museum stated that the other countries considered this an internal problem in Germany, and that’s why they weren’t getting involved. How is cruel treatment and mass murder an internal problem? I cannot understand why it took so long for other countries, and especially the United States, to help the Jewish people.
At the end of the museum there is a video that in a way sums up what you’re supposed to take away from your visit. I thought they did a fantastic job ending the museum that way. The video discussed how we must never forget what happened and we must continue to openly talk about the events that transpired so that they will never happen again. Unfortunately genocide continues to occur and we have not gotten any closer to ending this vicious cycle. In the video Barbara Streisand states that we must continue to stand up for our freedom as well as the freedom of others. She states that we must also continue to protect this freedom and ensure that we continue to work towards the end of genocide. I hope someday this is no longer an issue. But in order to avoid this, we all need to be vigilant and stand up to anyone who brings hatred in public discourses.
