Group+2-+Local+Museums

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• Their goal is to transport the visitors back in time so they can personally experience a few of the Holocaust events, through the eyes of the victims that actually endured it. Their hope is to create present and future tolerance for all, regardless of religion, sex, gender, race or nationality through the education of the horrific past of the Holocaust. ======

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• The museum offers an interactive experience for the visitors so they can physically and visually see what the victims of the Holocaust experienced. It includes 28 permanent exhibits, which each depict various aspects of the Holocaust. These include: ======
 * ====== A walk through a “ghetto” that the Jews were forced to move to and live in together, segregated from other non-Jewish people. ======
 * ====== A walk through a concentration camp ======
 * ====== You can board the “st. Louis” ship and ride in a cattle car. The cattle car is what the Jewish prisoners were forced to be transported in, when they were being transported to various concentration camps. The cattle cars provided horrible conditions for the prisoners. They were standing on top of one another, had no access to bathrooms, so they were forced to urinate standing up, were provided no food, etc.======
 * ====== They have an exhibit that allows you to crawl through a replica of an actual hiding place where 12 jewish people hid during WWII for about 9 months. ======
 * A walk through a room, which replicates the Nurmeberg Trials courtroom. It is the only existing replica of the famous courtroom. It has set the standard for modern international law.

• They also have a “Carole Weinstein holocaust Research Library”, which includes:

 * 4200 books, videos, and periodicals dating from the 30s to the present
 * It reflects Holocaust history, education, comparative genocide studies, and sociology of intolerance
 * They have an online catalog as well.

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In addition, they hold several different special exhibits that are not there year round. For example, this fall they are implementing a photographic exhibit: It is called, "Lives Remembered: Photographs from a small town (1897-1939)"; this will display the destruction of a shtetl in Poland. In addition, they are holding a viewing of a Yiddish Film Festival in December. In Spring 2011, the Museum is showing a screening of Yael Hersonski’s powerful documentary about the Warsaw Ghetto //A Film Unfinished// that chronicles the Nazis’ crude attempt at anti-Semitic cinematic propaganda.====== 

(These are pictures of a few of the interactive exhibits the museum has to offer.)

__**Holocaust Museum and Learning Center (St. Louis, Missouri)**__

 * ======Their mission: The Holocaust Museum and Learning Center envisions a world where hatred and indifference are transformed into understanding and compassion, where all people are treated with dignity and respect.======


 * Opened in May 1995, it is a department of the Jewish Federation in St. Louis. Their slogan is "Gateway to the Jewish Community". The Jewish Federation is a site for the Jewish community to stay connected and stay involved. There is a list of events and organizations for the Jewish community to partake in.
 * ======5,000 square foot exhibit that includes personal accounts of Holocaust survivors who emigrated to St. Louis.======


 * ======Visitors go through pre-war Jewish life in Europe, the rise of Nazism and events during the Holocaust between 1933-1945, and post-war Jewish life. The exhibits use photographs, artifacts, text panels, and audio visual displays.======


 * ======The museum includes a video library with over 500 videos, and an oral history project with over 150 testimonies.======


 * ======Garden of Remembrance outside the museum======


 * ====== The learning center of the museum incorporates workshops for teachers to help them create their own curriculum about the Holocaust in order to take back to their students. It not only teaches about the Holocaust but it raises awareness of racism and hatred that is still ongoing amongst the school systems today.======

"Illuminating the past. Enlightening the future."

 * Nations first free standing museum, dedicated to the remembrance of the Holocaust.
 * Just acquired a new exhibit, a World War II era box car that was used to transport Jews to concentration camps. Will be set in a natural setting with a mural behind it. Visitors will not be able to walk into it but rather touch it and place rocks near the entrance.
 * Harry and Wanda Zekelman International Institution of the Righteous (see below) sponsors a "Corps of Righteousness" made up students from Berkley High School and Lawrence Technological Institute. Personally was a part of this program at Berkley High School. It consisted of classroom time learning about the history of the Holocaust and also the righteous individuals who helped others. After the classroom instruction we volunteered in our community for the rest of the semester. Followed by a visit to the museum.
 * **Museum contains seven different areas for visitors to see in order:**
 * 1) Time Line: a circular exhibit room highlighting major events in the Jewish religion throughout the past 4,000 years
 * 2) The Museum of European Jewish Heritage: giving visitors a glimpse into the European Jewish culture. Teaching them about things such as religious beliefs, family/community lifestyle, education and learning, and involvement in the arts.
 * 3) World War II: Letting vistors learn all about the rise of Hitler in Germany and shows the beginning the Jew being placed in Ghettos and also labor camps.
 * 4) The Final Solution: Highlighting the process of deportation to concentration camps where Jew were either murdered or worked to death.
 * 5) Post-War World: visitors have a chance to view videos of local metro Detroit Holocaust survivors sharing their experiences. Also are able to view the aftermath of the Holocaust such as sentencing of Nazi war criminals, the existence of displaced person camps, and the creation of the state of Israel.
 * 6) Harry and Wanda Zekelman international institution of the righteous: visitors now have a chance to learn about the people who put thier life in danger in order to save a life.
 * 7) Memorial Flame: This is the place where tours either start or end. It is a flame that burns continuously between two walls. One wall having the number of Jews murdered by country in the Holocaust and the other with names of the numerous concentration and labor camp.

“Remember the Past, Transform the Future”

 * Dedicated to preserving the legacy of the Holocaust by honoring the memories of those who were lost and by teaching universal lessons that combat hatred, prejudice and indifference
 * One of the last institutions created by survivors
 * Large focus on connecting the Holocaust to genocide worldwide, and preventing discrimination in the future
 * 65,000 square foot, three part building
 * Part One: “Dark side” contains dark walls and sharp angles to represent the descent into darkness
 * Part Two: “Hinge” of the building which contains the Book of Remembrance and an authentic early 20th century German rail car
 * Part Three: “Ascends into light”, and has soft rounded edges and rooflines filled with natural light to represent the rescue and renewal of survivors
 * Literally walk on the Nazi memorabilia, because it is shown through transparent floor panels

The Building design leaves the interior industrial skeleton exposed, nothing is made to seem nice looking. The exterior was made to resemble a concentration camp.

**Exhibitions**
- Karkomi Permanent Exhibition - Make a Difference! The Miller Family Youth Exhibition - Legacy of Absence Gallery - Special Exhibition
 * Tells the story of the Holocaust from prewar German life through ghettos and concentration camps, to liberation and resettlement throughout the world (focus on postwar life in Skokie)
 * Starts in the “Dark Side” and continues through the entire museum
 * Contains more than 500 artifacts, documents, photographs, and video testimony donated by survivors
 * Continues through the “Hinge”, which contains the Book of Remembrance as a memorial to those who died, and a German railcar that visitors can choose to walk through
 * Ends in the “ascends into light section” which contains the Room of Remembrance and Hall of Reflection, a moving tribute that names the 6 million Jews killed
 * Concluding film in the Pritzker Theater calling for social action and connecting the lessons of the Holocaust with other genocides
 * Provides a safe space where children can brainstorm how to stand up for those experiencing discrimination within local and global communities
 * Urges children to be an upstander, not a bystander
 * Children can “Take a Stand” in a virtual reality experience
 * Focuses on responses to other genocides such as those in Cambodia and Argentina
 * Features contemporary works of art to help understand the lasting effects of genocide and human rights abuses
 * Currently on display is The Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps, 1942-1946
 * Showcases arts and crafts made by Japanese Americans in the U.S. Internment camps
 * Contains more than 120 objects on loan from former internees or their families

**COMPARING AND CONTRASTING THE USE OF MEMORY CULTURES IN LOCAL MUSEUMS**
The St. Louis museum and learning center really has focused in on teaching and raising awareness in the community about the Holocaust and the repercussions that are still felt today by survivors, family members of survivors and simply those of Jewish faith. Whereas, the Virginia Holocaust Museum does their best to bring the visitors of the the museum back in time. The museum recreates specific events and "scenes" from the Holocaust: pre, during and after. They use a format of interactive exhibits to make the visitor feel as if they were present during the Holocaust themselves. This museum has utilized memory culture to create awareness of the past and to hopefully promote future tolerance towards all, regardless of religion, nationality, race, sex or creed by through awareness education of the past.

The St. Louis museum focuses on helping people understand what happened during the Holocaust, however it also raises awareness on what happened after the Holocaust and what is going on today in the Jewish community. The learning center of the museum uses memory culture not only to help with the remembrance of the Holocaust, but it also brings the lessons learned from the Holocaust into the present in order to prevent the horrors from happening again. With the learning center portion of the museum it creates an experience that uses the Holocaust as a tool in aiding the knowledge of preventing prejudice notions and racism that occurs today.

The testimonies that are available for viewing (at the Virginia, St. Louis, and Illinois museums) are another way the museums have preserved memory culture of those who suffered from the Holocaust. The testimonies are first hand accounts from actual Holocaust survivors, which explain what they personally went through as prisoners of the Holocaust. By watching a video of an actual survivor's story, one can connect on an emotional level by putting a face to the story and reflections that are being told. The Illinois and St. Louis Museums both contain testimony from survivors who moved to the area the museums are located in. This helps put focus on the survivors who helped make the building of the museum possible, and who wanted to make sure their stories are never forgotten.

Both the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills and also the Illinois Holocaust Museum have a German boxcar on display, emphasizing the fact that these boxcars are an important aspect of the Holocaust, they transported millions of Jews to their death. Also the Holocaust Museum and Learning Center ( St.Louis) shares characteristics with the Holocaust Memorial Center (Farmington Hills) in that they both emphasize the timeline aspect of the Holocaust. Both having exhibits highlighting pre war Europe all the way to post WWII Europe.

The Illinois Museum focuses on preserving the Holocaust and honoring those who were lost by teaching lessons to combat hatred, promoting human rights, and making connections between other genocides worldwide. The museums exhibits allow visitors to understand the journey through such a tragic event from prewar to concentration camps to recovery. The educational programs afterward allow visitors to connect the Holocaust of WWII to other genocides worldwide and hope that in doing so people will see the connections between the different tragedies which all stemmed from violence.

However the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills focuses on remembering the past and learning about past events and factual information, while the Virginia Holocaust Museum really emphasizes visitors being able to experience being a part of the Holocaust first hand with their interactive exhibits. This makes the type of memory cultures represented in each museum very different.

All four museums use displays of real photographs and artifacts from the Holocaust.