Field Trip to Museum of Tolerance

The Simon Wiesenthal’s Museum of Tolerance opened in Los Angeles in 1993. It is the only museum of its kind in the world and is “dedicated to preserving the memory of the Holocaust and to fostering tolerance through educational outreach, community involvement and social action.” “In December 2004, the Museum won the Global Peace and Tolerance Award.”

I visited MOT on Easter Sunday 2009; my reservation was for 12:30pm. I visited MOT with my boyfriend, Miko, and Billy, the teenage boy he works with every weekend. This was our first visit to MOT. We left MOT at 2:30pm.

When we arrived, we were escorted to the bottom floor by Lidia. Once on the bottom floor, we passed an iron sculpture of an upside-down crucifixion on the Star of David. Lidia explained to the group what each floor contained and what we should expect. She then directed the group towards the multimedia room, Tolerance Center, with dealt with issues of our contemporary world. In this room there were nine screens stacked on top of one another, with the image of a man speaking to us, the audience, but using many stereotypes of various cultures while talking to us. We were then informed to turn around. Behind us stood two doors, one labeled “prejudice” and the other “unprejudiced.” Lidia then asked if we understood the definition of “prejudice.” I answered, “To prejudge.” She then notified us that the doors of “unprejudiced” was locked and are always locked. She then asked if we knew why they were always locked. I answered, “Because we all have prejudice or have been guilty of prejudice at some point in our life.” She then opened the “prejudice” doors. Inside there was a wall with “The Power of Words” written on it and a screen showing examples of the power of words in our life. The examples were speeches from John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King to speeches from KKK sympathizers and leaders of terrorist groups. The message was powerful in that through the power of words one can instill hope or espouse hate. Next, there was a wall that had “Confronting Hate in America” written on it. This wall had eight screens titled, “Digital Terrorism and Hate over the Internet,” that displayed websites that one can find on the internet. Behind this was the Point of View Diner. On the wall of the diner was a menu, on the menu was think; assume responsibility; ask questions; speak up; lead, don’t follow; your opinion counts. Inside the diner were three screens playing a video, the video centered around a radio talk show host, Billy Bostic, who spread his brand of intolerance over the radio. In the video, listeners of Bostic would engage in confrontation with their wives, friends, and strangers over his brand of free speech. The video ended with the death of woman by the hands of a Bostic listener and a security guard of a restaurant. The issue at hand was the right to say things vs. the responsibility to say them. Outside of the diner were fifteen screens which took up an entire hallway. Each screen rotated in an up and down fashion to display various events which may have happened during that screens particular time period. What, ultimately, was chronicled was American history from the time of 1465 to present time. On the adjacent wall in the center of the hallway were numerous smaller screens making up one large screen chronicling the Civil Rights Movement. At the end of the hallway, we were able to watch a short video titled, “In Our Time.” The videos focus was on the history of genocide.

From there we entered the Holocaust Center, which chronicled Germany following WWI in 1920 to the rise of the Nazi Party to the liberation of Holocaust Survivors in1945. Upon entering the Holocaust Center, my boyfriend and I were given passports of children from the Holocaust. My child was a young boy named Jean-Claude Benguigui from Algeria. I was given three opportunities to learn about Jean-Claude and his family. On my last opportunity I was given a print out that informed me of Jean-Claude’s fate. Unfortunately, “Jean-Claude was one of the 1.5 million Jewish children murdered by the Germans and their collaborators during the Holocaust.” At the start of the Holocaust Center, we watched a short video titled, “The Jewish World That Was.”

On the second floor of MOT, I sat in briefly on a lecture given by Dr. Henry Oster, a Holocaust Survivor, because I arrived at the end of it. I did get to look at paintings by students depicting African-American Literature. There were also drawings on display by the children of Darfur depicting the atrocities they witness on a daily basis. Also on display were letters by Anne Frank and her sister, Margot. These were letters written to American pen-pals.

My visit impacted me greatly. This visit, coupled with Springer’s readings, left me feeling that I am not doing enough to make the world a better place. There were several instances in which I was moved to tears. The movie, “In Our Time,” reminded me that hatred is alive and well in this day and age. But it did lead me to question, if the Holocaust is suppose to be a reminder that genocide is a cruel act against humanity, where was Israel, as a nation, during the conflicts in the Balkans and were are they now during the crisis in Darfur? As for my walk through, the Holocaust Center, I was much to caught up with the exhibit to even keep notes. I kept asking myself, How could anyone allow themselves to be caught up in such a frenzy of hate? How could one rationalize these atrocities happening to any human being? Needless to say, I walked away speechless as every part of the exhibit was set up so that one can imagine themselves in the very same position.