Holocaust Memorial History

There are various ways to commemorate a person or an event. The commemoration could either be a picture, a book, a special day, or a monument. Monuments are created to honor a famous person or a historic event. But before state/federal agencies or local communities start building a monument, there are some factors they should take into consideration. Including; the location, the cost, historical background, nature, and the significance of the monument, as well as the community’s perception about the monument.

My trip to the Museum of the Jewish Heritage was interesting. I enjoyed it very much. This museum provided a mesmerizing approach to the Holocaust. I never knew much about the Holocaust or Jews, but what I did learn that the Museum was constructed to teach us about the lives of the Jews through the Holocaust. The Museum has paid its respect to those individuals who passed on by praising their lives and the treaties that they clenched to, by looking back at their accomplishments and confidence. The new eras of Jews are taught how to identify and battle modern examples of criminal action and abuse. The Jews had a sad life during these hard times of sorrow, vicious treatment and discriminating justice. At the Museum, they had several core exhibits, which told stories of different events throughout

Adolf Hitler’s rise to power grew out of issues left unresolved by the earlier conflict during World War I. Resentment and harsh terms imposed by the Versailles Treaty only fueled Hitler’s revenge, which would result in the largest blood bath the world has ever come to see. World War II would be considered the deadliest war in history, murdering millions of civilians. In 1939, Adolf Hitler invaded Poland resulting in a deadly six-year battle until the final allied defeat of both Nazi Germany and Japan in 1945.

Preserving Memory: The Struggle to Create America’s Holocaust Museum was written by Edward T. Linenthal. This book was published by the Columbia University Press in New York. The book was copyrighted in 1995 and then once again in 2001. This book also has 336 pages.

The Nazi government led by Adolf Hitler, used the miscellaneous systems of persecution to implement the Holocaust. Some of the systems of persecution were propaganda, creation of laws and the use of gas chambers. In the beginning propaganda is practiced by the government to shift the community’s outlook on a certain point of view. Another key point is the creation of laws against interaction with Jewish people. Finally, the government utilized deadly gas chambers to kill Jewish people. With this in mind, The Nazi regime was able to enforce the holocaust.

The official name of the memorial is called The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. This name gives a clear stance on the history of the Holocaust and portrays the responsibility that the German government has taken for their wrongdoings against the Jewish people. Significantly, it was the first German government sponsored memorial, which further explains its importance. This reflects postconvetionalism in the way that the German government has acknowledged the truth of their role during the war. The truth is also explanatory in the name of the memorial; however, the physical structure does not display certainty of it being a memorial of the six million murdered Jews. The structure is beyond the binary and fixedness of other Holocaust

There is a lot that goes into the making of a memorial. A lot to be considered before they can start thinking about what the memorial is going to be; a huge bronze statue or a plaque with their name on it, and where. Controversy is also something that needs to be thought about in deciding if it would be a good idea or not to have a memorial of someone or something. Those factors should depend on the space they are working on, as well as where, and the fact that sometimes it’s best to stay away from the subject as the public may not agree.

A majority of the exhibit was technology based or was made up entirely of dioramas. It was very interesting to discover that the museum uses a mediated based approach to inform their audience of the events that happened during the time of the Holocaust. To heighten the experience, the museum hands out cards with pictures of Jewish people who were affected by the Holocaust. At the end of the tour, there is a scanner that will reveal the fate of the person on your card. I received Peter Freistadt. Peter Freistadt was born on October 13, 1931, in Bratislavia, Czechoslovakia. With the arrival of anti-Semitic laws in the 1940s, him and his family had to wear the Star of David on their sleeves and a brand. The star branded them for all to see that they are jewish. They were required to hire a non-Jewish man to overlook their family owned business. They were forced to leave their home. Peter Freistadt was one of the lucky few to escape the ghettos, and the horrors that followed. There was one section within the exhibit called "The Hall of Testimony". This is where you can hear the stories of Holocaust survivors. This provides live testimony of the events from the period and semi fills the void that was caused due to the previous lack of artifacts. The Museum honors the survivors in a permanent exhibit titled “Witness to Truth”. The

The Holocaust memorial was built by James Ingo Freed so we could remember the ones that passed away and the tragic event that occurred.It’s important so we the people in the society don’t let something like this happen again especially since there were about 13 million people that died during this event. It’s important that the people in the world don’t let anything like this happen again.

The Holocaust was one of the twentieth century's greatest tragedies that were made possible by anti-Semitism, the indifference of other nations, isolationism politics, and outright fear.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “Introduction to the Holocaust.” Holocaust Encyclopedia. www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005143. Accessed on [19 March 2016].

The Holocaust Memorial Center Zekelman Family Campus is about the horrendous events such as hate crimes that were happening during World War II. The definition of Holocaust from the museum website perspective is “The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews and five million other persons by the Nazi regime and its collaborators” (Holocaust and Survivor Defined.). “The term Holocaust comes from the Greek words of “holos” (whole) and “kaustos” (burn) which was used to describe a sacrificial offering burned on an alter” (History.com). The museum has been around for more than 25 years, in Farmington Hills and has been acknowledged by the Wall Street Journal. The museum does not only reflect on the evil, but also the strength and the courage of the victims affected in this genocide. The purpose of the Holocaust museum is to remember those who have passed away and survived, as well as, to teach and inform others about the events. There were many exhibits to choose from such as, the Jewish heritage, the descent into Nazism and the postwar period. The exhibit I will be focusing on is called, The Camp System.

There are also monuments that are more salient and mention the concentration camps that the individuals survived (Appendix B, Figure 2). The community purposefully includes monument inscriptions to show an individual’s connection to the Holocaust. This action creates tribute to those who were victims of the Holocaust. This practice also creates a collaborative means for the community to mourn over these survivors.

The readings from these past weeks on on issues of race and cultural patrimony were too informative considering the Native American exhibits I have attended, my work in an anthropology museum, and anthropology classes I have taken. Somehow, Cooper’s “The Long Road to Repatriation” provided more context and weight to the historical atrocities against Native Americans than any of my other educational experiences. To be fair, I am not a scholar of Native history, but I am certainly not uninformed, and it should not take a scholar or be a native person to understand these issues. As Lonetree mentioned, the Holocaust Museum presents a difficult subject and forces the visitor to “confront inhumanity” (106). I think the impact of this information as an educational experience in a museum would have a huge impact on current social and political tensions.

My name is Max Schneider, and I am a German Jew of the second degree. I am 27, just recently coming out of medical school, and employed as a local doctor, but soon I think my occupation will be in jeopardy. My family is of Jewish descent, but has married into a German family three generations before.