The Monuments And Museums : Art

In this book, the author describes the long process it takes to create a national museum that will commemorate the Holocaust. He covers issues such as, the location of it, the design and construction aspects of the museum building. He informs readers about how they’ve tried to represent the Holocaust through the museum with sensitivity. I will use specific facts from this book to show that this museum was built with the help of many and required a lot of thought into it. I will show that this museum does in fact show sensitivity to an individual.

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.

A monument is an solid, carved in statue that is an representation of a person or event that has made an remarkable time in the past. However, there are many different ways to remember a person or event. Memorializing an person or event is a great way to preserve history; because everyone agrees to enormous expensive statue is more entertaining than reading a boring textbook about the person or event. As a matter of fact, every person in American can not remember every person or event in history because there isn’t enough time and space for that. Therefore, a group or agency should consider the three main factors, size, location, and materials when planning or creating an memorial monument of an important person or event.

The idea of keeping monuments in public spaces is a challenging choice for us all because for those who don’t like the idea of the monuments being removed they can become really violent much so that in the article “Battle Scars”

In every culture, respect is a quality that communities embrace around the world. Whether it be to remember a person’s achievement or to provide a sense of connection in a community, monuments link together the present and the past with the motive of respect. Memorials are far more relevant than a seemingly trivial granite monument that one could notice in a park (Source B); they embellish meaning, symbol, emotion, and memories into a collective emblem. In memorializing an event and creating a monument, it is essential for the group or agency to not only consider the basic elements such as the historical significance or size, location, and materials but also to acknowledge the emotional linkage the event or monument may induce through attachment

Memorialization of any sort can be a tedious process, but those regarding Holocaust remembrance were particularly challenging given the surrounding social and political controversies that ensued. This is primarily seen through the issue of representation, which consistently played a key role in the creation of both the Holocaust museum in Washington D.C., and the Dachau concentration camp memorial. While the Dachau memorial’s conception stages, the designers were contemplating which victim groups to include. For instance, the mayor of Dachau stated, “Please do not make the mistake of thinking that only heroes died in Dachau. Many inmates were…there because they illegally opposed the regime of the day….You have to remember there were many criminals and homosexuals in Dachau. Do we want a memorial to such people?” (Harold Maruse, “Dachau,” 151). With this quote, the mayor implies that the memorial will only be dedicated to those he deems worthy of representation. Likewise, the White House officials orchestrating the American Holocaust Museum also debated a similar notion regarding the inclusion of ethic victim groups other than the Jews. However, Wiesel and other Holocaust survivors believed that commemorating non-Jews was an “…obscene incursion into the boundaries of Holocaust memory by those whose country-men had persecuted survivors” (Edward T. Linenthal, Preserving Memory, 53). For this reason, and in order to avoid the generation of false memories, these groups

so future generations will never forget. It took Treister five years to complete the sculptures, including an extensive research in Jerusalem’s work because he wanted to seek a better understanding on how his sculpture would tell the story of the Holocaust and represent the Jewish religion and community. “No one can comprehend the number of six million or the fact that each of the six million was a person, with family, friends, and a full life... each enduring the most excruciating agony every second, minute, hour, and day, of the Holocaust. The immensity of this tragedy is infinite. To express it artistically, impossible ... but I had to try” (Treister). Through his architecture and design, Treister succeeded in building an interactive memorial that connects people to the suffering that the holocaust created. By doing so he also brings people closer to the Jewish religion and the history of the Jewish community.

The news of terror in Germany immediately made its way to Eleanor Roosevelt, who presented a document seeking that human rights to be enjoyed by all people. In Articles 3 and 5 the document states that “everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person…” and that “no one shall be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” (Document 6). These are statements to ensure that everyone had the freedoms a human deserves. These orders clearly weren’t upheld during the Holocaust, and that is exactly why peacemakers vowed to fix these problems and never let history repeat itself. The desire for peace was presented in numerous ways, and one way is through art. A memorial at Dachau, a former concentration camp where Jews were killed during the Holocaust, illustrates the cry for help the world set out (Document 7). In the languages Hebrew, French, English, German and Russian, the monument says the words “Never Again.” These two words spelled out in five different languages is demonstrating the fact that universally, we should never see anything more terrifying as the Holocaust, never

Children in “Daniel’s Story” can pull letters down from the walls and ceilings and read them, along with telephones that can be picked up that ask questions or statements about the Holocaust. (4) The Hall of Remembrance is candle lit memorial that is covered in names of those who were victims to the Holocaust, then for the Wall of Remembrance there are tiles amongst a wall that show sentimental and simple images from the Holocaust Aftermath. (4) For the older children that visit the museum there is the Second Floor, Wexner Learning Center, that features touch screen computers that can pull up information (music, photos, and witness interviews) on the Holocaust or what occurred during the Aftermath. (4) One of the last of many features in the museum is about other genocides that occurred in other parts of the world. For example, the genocide of Sudan called, “Sudan Divided: People at Risk.” (3) All of the these exhibits that visitors enjoy have created the reasons as to why the museum has come into

I chose to visit the Saint Louis Holocaust Museum for my independent field trip on April 6, 2016 to get out of my typical comfort zone and learn about a specific group of people that endured the largest genocide in recorded history. Upon entering the building, I was shocked to see the number of uniforms and other items that were recovered from World War II. This was the first thing that really set the tone for me and put me in the right emotional state to think about the fact that these are real families and children that were murdered simply because the Nazi’s wanted to. A few of the numbers that really shocked me include, at least six million Jewish were killed, thirteen percent of the population of Russia was wiped out, and a grand total of seventy to eighty-five million people were killed in WW2 (3-4% of the world’s population).

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.

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

When I visited the Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA), I was mesmerized by the beautiful sculptures, paintings, and many other works of art. This museum introduces many different exhibitions at different times and dates. The exhibition that I chose to visit is called the “Sandow Birk: American Qur’an”. The reason why I was very interested in this type of exhibition was because it displayed Middle Eastern artwork. Another reason was because I am Middle Eastern and that I can relate to it. Although I was so focused on this exhibition only, I did not realize the other works of art. However, as I walked deeper into the museum, another exhibition caught my attention. That exhibition is called the “Olga Lah: Amass and Swell”. If anyone decides to visit the Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA), I would recommend to look online about any appealing exhibitions that are being displayed as well as calling their office to plan a visit. Furthermore, in my opinion, there were some types of art that I did not fully analyze because they were not relatively fascinating as the rest. Moreover, the artworks that I examined displayed unique qualities and their messages were demonstrated in a significant, yet informative way.

I was maybe in the seventh grade when our class had traveled all the way to El Paso to visit the Holocaust Museum. I remember as the bus pulled up to the building, I could see the sign. It closely resembled a fire, but as we drove close, I immediately recognized what appeared to be mother and father holding a baby. Sure enough, when we finally got inside, our tour guide asked us if we see anything else besides the somewhat memorial fire. We of course said a family, but then she asked if there was anything else on the logo that was plastered on the front desk.. Being as clueless as I was back then, this threw me off guard. It wasn’t until another student said that there writing at the top of the fire when I completely face-palmed. “Oh.” was I said, but in the inside it was more like “How could you miss that?” She then informed us that the writing can be roughly translated as “As humanly”.

In many places throughout the world many buildings, monuments and sculptures have been made. Some were made centuries ago, and some were made recently. Many works of arts are significant or a great part of history. Some of the many buildings that have been made throughout time could have also been dedicated to someone or something. For example, the Arch of Titus was dedicated to Titus. Another example would be the Arc de Triomphe which was dedicated to soldiers. Many buildings can have a very significant meaning behind them, in the following essay I will be speaking about the importance of both of these works of art, which are the Arch of Titus and the Arc de Triomphe.