"What They Saw at the Holocaust Museum"

[Austin]

How much, how soon is a continuing discussion among our friends.

Growing up, I was part of a generation where we really weren't sheltered from information. By 9, I was reading Diary of Anne Frank (including the fairly graphic epilogue), and having my mom explain why some people had numbers tatooed on their arms. I also remember graphic descriptions of nuclear bombs.

To a certain extent, I think that kids can be more sheltered today. The schools are slightly more concerned about being "age appropriate". Kids also don't watch the same TV that the parents do. Growing up, we had one TV in the family room, and that's where we all watched the news. My kids, though, have their own channels playing kids' shows 24/7. I remember how my oldest child was a toddler on 9/11, and we tried to watch the coverage when she was in another room. It was such an all-consuming event that she soon found out about it, though. I then simply assumed that my younger kids - born shortly after 9/11 - knew about it as well, from the media and from the fact that we had books about it around the house. I was actually shocked when we took the kids to New York 18 months ago, mentioned that we were going to see the 9/11 memorial at Ground Zero, and had the younger ones respond with "what's that?". I noticed they were deeply affected by the "Heroes of the 88th floor" documentary on TLC around the 10th anniversary, which was when they really began to understand the story in detail.

I am of that generation, too, and while I wanted to protect my children, I did not feel comfortable over-censoring "life" for them. There is definitely information that is not age appropriate and dealing with a highly sensitive, anxiety-prone child is different, but I'm talking overall. I also wanted my children to know that garden-variety anxiety, sadness, and even evil is part of life, so that when it hit them, they'd know how to deal with it. Every child is different and part of parenting is understanding where each child is at developmentally. I think the question should be, "Are they ready to understand this?" as opposed to "Will it upset them?" Of course, they're going to be upset. We should all be upset by the Holocaust and 9/11 and Darfur and Rwanda and all of the hundreds of other senseless, evil tragedies.

But then again, I was nearly expelled for writing a very extensive book report on what was deemed a subversive book in elementary school and my folks roundly scolded for providing such age-inappropriate material to me. They didn't actually provide it; I borrowed it from my aunt's library. But they never censored anything after that, either. For which I am truly grateful.

[shesinsane]

"Now we all get along together", but more than 10 years later a crazy guy went to the museum to kill a bunch of Jews. Instead, he only killed the security guard (who was not Jewish, but a minority that the shooter was likely not a fan of).

I have a feeling describing the museum as "cool" stems from a lack of vocabulary. If I had to describe it in a single word, I'd describe it as intense. I haven't been to the museum since 1996, but I can still remember, quite clearly, how exhausting and depressing it was.

[MandyLaLa]

I just can't handle Holocaust deniers, minimizers and anyone who dares compare it to another event in the world, especially abortion. The Holocaust stands alone as one the most atrocious events in modern history. We should be thanking our lucky stars nothing does or ever will compare to the magnitude of the Holocaust.

When I was a 10 I went to Israel, we visited Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust Memorial. There was a sculpture it was just a pile of shoes, that image has stuck with me to this day. The stark reality that millions of people were in the end just a pile of shoes.

I love what the Hall of Remembrance says at the U.S. Museum

Only guard yourself and guard your soul carefully, lest you forget the things your eyes saw, and lest these things depart your heart all the days of your life, and you shall make them known to your children, and to your children's children.

Source: Deuteronomy 4:9

[LIzzieB]

I went to the Holocaust museum when I was 18 in 1996. As a pretty sensitive individual, I was profoundly impacted by everything I saw. In religious studies at school, we learnt about Judaism, read The Diary of Anne Frank and watched "Escape from Sobibor". I spent a lot of time in tears at the back of the classroom, but didn't want to leave as I felt that it was very important to know these things. Nothing about it can be justified, and I find it sickening that there are Christians out there teaching that the Jews might have somehow deserved it.

We were taken up to the museum in a lift by a tour guide, who told us he was a survivor and showed us his tattoo. This was the first time I knowingly met a survivor and my breath caught in my throat. We then walked through the museum with a "passport" of a Holocaust victim, finding out gradually what happened to them. When I got to the year that "my" person died, I wept. The room full of shoes was haunting, and I couldn't tear my eyes from a small child's shoe. It was a terrible but extraordinary museum. There was a middle school group going through at the same time, and lots of the boys were wearing kippahs - I can't imagine what that experience must have been like for them knowing that they likely had family members caught up in these events. I hope that those teenagers were equally lost for words, and that "cool" was the only thing they could come up with, inappropriate as it was. The quality of the exhibits was very high - maybe that was all they were able to react to and process at that time.

I've never been able to explain my fascination for these terrible events. A couple of years after my visit, I was doing Holocaust studies at university. My dad finally got the courage up to tell me that my grandfather had been part of the liberating forces at Belsen, and it had profoundly affected my grandfather and the family psychologically. It was the family's great hidden secret until 20 years after his death - too terrible to acknowledge. And last year, we found out through a genealogical DNA test that my maternal grandfather's heritage is strongly Ashkenazi... I'm not sure what to make of it all, but the Holocaust is now not some unconnected event in the distant past, but something that is directly connected to my family. I think it's incredibly important to share this history to prevent these things from happening again, but they do happen, over and over... human beings can be really hideous in the face of ignorance.

[JesusFightClub]

I visited a Holocaust museum last month (it was actually a little museum dedicated to Jewish history, but a large part of it was about the Holocaust). It was very emotionally draining, but I'm glad I went. I got to meet an Auschwitz survivor and hear her tell her story. I noticed several people fighting back tears while she was talking.

I can't imagine calling a Holocaust museum "cool", but I also think that could just be teenagers not really knowing how to express themselves.

Very true. Sometimes people don't find the right words for stuff. Did that myself over the Colorado shooting :oops: I didn't mean what I said at all how it sounded, but no one was happy with me. The teenager may have meant loads of different things with the word, we just don't know.

[Three and Done]

I personally DO have hope for the next generation. I have taught my children to judge people based upon their actions and nothing else. They have friends of every race, gender, religion, and sexual orientation. I am VERY proud of them for that!

I have never talked down to them, nor tried to "hide" the evil that exists in this world. We have discussed everything from the Holocaust (which impacted them immensely), to the plight of women in other countries, to the events of 9/11 (we personally knew a family that lost someone), to current events around the world. I am a parent that truly believes that those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.

I believe that my children (and those like them) are our best and brightest hope for the future.

[canela]

I can't imagine calling a Holocaust museum "cool", but I also think that could just be teenagers not really knowing how to express themselves.

Having some rather reticent pre/teens in my family, I tend to agree that "cool" could have meant any number of things. This kid may have been too overwhelmed to make an effort to express his/her feelings, may not have wanted to appear "weak" in front of peers, or may have actually been so apathetic that "cool" really was the most accurate expression of his/her feelings (not that I feel apathy would by any means be appropriate). On the other hand, I have some teen relatives who probably would neither be able to stop talking about what they learned nor stop asking more questions. Individuals react so differently.

I'm more bothered by the reactions of a couple of teens of my acquaintance when someone mentioned our local Shoa museum as a worthwhile vacation activity. One said, "Gross." You think so, kid? And the other said, "Boooring!" That's just something I can never understand. Terrifying, heartbreaking, evil, disgusting, inhuman, monstrous...but boring? I'd like to think that this kid used "boring" as a substitute for "I'm too scared of what I'll see and feel," but unfortunately in this case I think he meant it.

[Sunnichick31]

I definitly think that "cool" probably meant something different. Perhaps the teen meant that it was a good thing to experience and a good thing to learn more about history, but they weren't quite sure how to put it.

I hope that someday I can visit the Holocaust museum. It's in my top 3 museums to visit someday (the others being the Mutter museum in Pennsylvania, and the Smithsonian of course.) I've read about it and heard stories from people who have visited it, and even though I know I'll prolly start crying within 5 minutes of entering, I still want to see it.