Alaina Willing
Professor Esa
From the Holocaust to German Unification
I
have read books about the Holocaust, and I have seen movies about the
Holocaust. I even have a friend whose
grandfather is a Holocaust survivor. He
showed me and my whole fourth grade class where his big toe had been chopped
off when he was laying railroad track in bare feet for the Nazis. I already knew many things about the
Holocaust before I came to the museum. I
knew about how numbers were carved into prisoners’ arms, about how prisoners
marched for miles in the snow, about the gas chambers, and about the yellow
stars on Jewish sleeves. However, I did
not truly know about the Holocaust.
Perhaps
I did not understand because I could not fully imagine what it was like. Perhaps it was because I could not bear to
fully imagine it. I don’t think it is
actually possible to comprehend the reality of the Holocaust without
experiencing it. Yet, I do think that
this experience brought me much closer.
It felt remorseful to listen to a Holocaust survivor on my part because
I felt as if I wasn’t letting myself get more out of the experience
The
museum was very well set up. I also
thought it was important that it was quite tastefully set up. The fact that the only films were
documentaries was important, because although there are some very good films
about the Holocaust, there is nothing quite like
reality to capture the truth of the situation.
The first thing to give the impression of the Holocaust was the elevator
which took us up to the fourth floor. It
was huge, many of us fit in there; it seemed to hint at how it felt to be
hoarded together with too many other people in a boxcar, as many Holocaust
prisoners were when they were transferred to and from concentration camps. It was also cold, (in fact, it was cold
throughout all of the museum.)
The
fourth floor somewhat eases you into the museum. It begins with simply photographs, their
captions and short films, describing the beginning of the Holocaust which was
not as horrific as the end. The third
floor takes you deeper and through more anguish, but it is the third floor
which really packs a punch. Relocation
is represented by the removal of hair, and the loss of clothes, shoes and other
valued items. There is a boxcar, the
same as those which were used to transport hundreds of prisoners, and in which
hundreds of prisoners died, is there so that you can stand inside. Then you move on to the concentration camp
area. There is a barrack in which
several prisoners slept, and a representation of what it looked like within the
gas chambers when they were in
use; people dying and
climbing on top of the dead, and people’s faces as they perished. Next you learn of those who resisted the
Nazis. Then it moves to when the camps
were “liberated.” There are
documentaries about how the German people are made to watch the ghastly mass
burial of numerous emaciated bodies.
Last are the stories from survivors.
This seems essential for the end of the museum,
it brings us to the present day, to the outcome for the survivors. It is an outlet for them to reflect, and so
it allows us to reflect on the museum.
It is about resolution for the survivors of the holocaust, and so it is
a resolution for the visitors as well.
I
appreciated what Rubin Sztajer did for us, and how he
does it for as many young people as he can because it is a valuable experience
to hear about the Holocaust firsthand, and it was also interesting to see how
he is and how his life is today. It is
very upsetting that my children and later generations will not have that
opportunity. I hope that they do not
have the opportunity to hear from a survivor of something similar.