JoEllyn Parks: An Experience That Leaves You With Many Emotions

            After having the opportunity to visit the Holocaust Museum in Skokie, IL over the weekend, I have a very different perspective about some of the events that occurred during the Holocaust. I have been in numerous classes that have gone into great detail about the Holocaust, but upon arriving at the museum itself, nothing can prepare a person for the emotions that will hit him or her. The museum is far from what any book or blog post can tell you. To start, my class and I were introduced to a Holocaust survivor named Magda Brown. She was the sweetest, kindest, and most compassionate woman that I have talked to. Before hearing her heart-breaking story about what her family was forced to go through during the Holocaust, I never would have guessed she was any different than the “average Jo.” While she told her story, I could not help but think about how horrible it must have been to go through a tragedy such as this. She was the youngest in her family and was forced to give everything up to the Nazi Soldiers. She was able to tell her story so vividly that I could envision myself there with her. 

After Magda Brown had finished her story, I was able to walk around and visit the museum. There was a total of 29 rooms, each with a different event that occurred during the Holocaust. As I made my way through, I saw different short films, pictures, post cards, books, journals, clothes, and even a real authentic train car in which the Nazis “shipped” Jews to the concentration camps. The museum itself was a trip back in time. It captured each of these events in such a way that I really felt that I was experiencing them with those people. The overall atmosphere of the museum allowed for me to really take into consideration how lucky I am today. I take so much for granted without realizing that those people had everything taken away. 

Overall, the trip to the Holocaust Museum is one that I would highly recommend students, teachers, and parents to put on their list to do. It is an experience that will leave you with so many different emotions… it is hard to know what to say or do. I think that this experience has really opened my eyes up to the different problems that the world has been forced to go through long before I was here. There is no doubt in my mind that the Holocaust was a real event that occurred in time, despite what some try to say. This tragedy took the lives of many husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, and children by the thousands. Today, I have changed my outlook on so many of the events that happened during the Holocaust because of the museum.