The Holocaust & Memorialization: Perspective Through A 17-Year-Old Lense

November 25, 2014

The Holocaust & Memorialization: Perspective Through A 17-Year-Old Lense

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." -Santayana

This past week, I had the opportunity of a lifetime in Washington, D.C. and NYC meeting with Holocaust survivors, visiting the Holocaust museum, and touring national memorials. Through the exhaustion, class meetings at midnight and dragging feet along the National Mall, I wouldn't change a thing about my trip. I'm 90% sure that I learned more in the last 5 days of my life than I've ever learned throughout my 17 years of existence. I feel that the only way I can give back to everyone that allowed this trip to happen is to share my experiences with the world, perhaps to inspire or invoke thought and interest. I'm going to create this post to chunk everything I've absorbed into one, so that maybe when I'm a 30 year old doing who-knows-what with my life, I can look back and remember this week of my high school life.

So, ride along with me as I show you my journey through a teenager's perspective.

some of us from the class ice skating in DC - my first time (and I didn't fall!)

As some of you may know, this trip was an "intensive" for a class that I am taking called Holocaust & Human Behavior. Many people may think we (the students) take this class to go on this life-changing trip, but I signed up for it mainly for the purpose of studying human behavior as it connects to such atrocities, and why we as humans are wired the way we are (alright, so perhaps hitting up DC for a week sounded pretty rad, too). I have always been interested in criminal law and prosecution, which has been solidified by my internships at a local law firm & State Attorney's Office. Yeah, I'm 17, but I want to find what I love to do now, for the purpose of my future college years. But, that's besides the point. On to more exciting things...

Day 1 - the most eye-opening day for me. We met with Alan Moskin (a former concentration camp liberator), Anita Schorr (a survivor of the Holocaust), and Rabbi Billy Dreskin. I won't go through all of the details, but hearing these testimonies from real-life witnesses is what brought everything into perspective. Words are so much more powerful when we hear them, rather than when they're simply printed on paper. Pictures were extravagantly painted in my mind as Alan and Anita emotionally spoke about their past lives, and the only thing I could think about while listening to the fear in their shaky voices was how I am part of the last generation to get to hear these stories. I must be the activist that passes them on. It's a saddening thought; my children will never get this experience that I had. Alan and Anita ended their fascinating stories touching on this idea - how my group [the other students I was with] must be upstanders in our daily lives, for we cannot allow such atrocities to occur. Here are a few of my favorite quotes from 2 of the bravest and most interesting people I've had the chance to speak to:

"How does one describe the indescribable?"

"We must judge people as individuals, not as a group."

"If we forget our history, we're bound to repeat it. We must learn from it."

"If you see a weakness, you are a witness; and if you step in, you are a hero."

"Hope and perserverance are what you need to survive."

Take a moment to think about these quotes and who they are from. Now, think about what you can do to fulfill their dreams for our generation. You guys, we can't just sit back and observe. We must act. Lesson #1 complete.

Day 2 & 3 - The Holocaust museum & National Mall memorials. Here's where it gets interesting: I had been to each place we visited before, both when I was 13 and 15 years old. However, visiting these memorials as a 17 year old with background knowledge was a much different experience.

The Holocaust Museum: layout, exhibit, and experience.

*Feel free to skip to parts that may interest you more, but these are the 3 main categories I made in my mind.

Layout: The first time I visited the museum, the architecture and layout meant nothing to me. I never even noticed how strategic everything is, nor did it ever cross my mind about how fragile this project [of building the museum] truly was. Standing in the lobby of the museum, it's pretty bright and cheerful, until you look up and realize how the layout resembles a chimney - bricks, tall columns, simplicity throughout.

I was fascinated with how they created this architecture and symbolism. Then, we get in to the permanent exhibit: dark and solemn with a heavy atmosphere. A few years ago when I came to this place, I recognized the dim light and quietness, but the feelings I had this time around never struck me the first time. My friend and I commented on how tense we were as we were about halfway through; was it just us, or did the air smell...dense (if that's possible)? There was this silence blanketing the entire exhibit as you walk along the narrow pathway observing the atrocities and horrendous photos. And, even better: when you are transitioning to the next floor, you cross through a hallway that is full of natural light, yet you can't actually see outside of the museum; it's a difficult phenomenon to explain, but it's almost as if you're trapped in this place you can't escape from (like a concentration camp...). It's actually scary in a way - perhaps it's meant to invoke this feeling of fear. And then, as we exit out of the liberation phase, we're tossed into the Hall of Remembrance...because of how moving this was, I'll place it in the experience category.
Moving on...
Exhibit: Now for the actual facts of the museum and all that it contains. I, personally, think that the museum did a fantastic job of displaying the Holocaust in an appropriate way; I mean, it must have been so hard to portray such a disastrous time in our history of the world, in a way that would mean not offending survivors or observers. There were a few main exhibits that really caught my attention: the medical experiments, the model of Auschwitz, and the liberation videos. For those of you who haven't been to the museum, this part may be skippable. But anyways... this permanent exhibit really depicted the Holocaust through use of photos, videos, and artifacts, like the cattle car that the prisoners were transported in or the shoes from the victims of the camps. There were many powerful ways that the museum portrays the atrocities committed - ways that you can't get just from reading a book about it or watching films from the witnesses. Because of this, I think that the museum is a great way to further one's knowledge of these events, but not necessarily be introduced to them. When I went in 8th grade, it was my first real time ever learning about the Holocaust, and because of everything that is jam-packed into it, I don't think anyone can effectively learn the exact timeline of everything or why things happened. Overall, the facts of the museum are phenomenal and the museum itself provides for an entirely different outlook on the Holocaust than just a class or simple text on paper.
Experience: My favorite and easiest part to write - my experience at the museum. I, of course, had a very moving experience, which has inspired me to write this. Going back to the strategic layout and set up, the first thing we see as an audience once we are forced out of the daunting elevators is a giant photo that captured American liberators standing around a pile of charred bodies on train tracks.

USHMM website: the picture

This is what they set us up to see first. Every child, every adult, every elderly person that goes to this museum will have to see this photo. And when I say giant, I mean giant. There's no way around it. So what is the point? Why this picture? For me, seeing it sent chills down my body. It sets the tone for the rest of the exhibit. Yeah, we're all a little chatty and anxious in the elevators, but as soon as those doors open and we see this, the air immediately becomes heavy. It brings up so many questions as we observe this picture - how can this be real? How did we, as a world, let this happen? Why are they on train tracks? Why are they charred? What happened to them? And, I think as it's expected, these questions get answered along the way of the rest of the exhibit. But, let's back up a second to the audience: did I say children? Sadly, I did. Something that I witnessed, along with my peers on the trip, was the amount of children in the museum - many of which were inappropriate and rude, thus taking away from my experience. On the first day at the museum, there were lots of kids, many of which I personally think were too young to understand such deep material, hence their rude behavior and comments. I mean, I don't think it was their fault; kids don't know how to act. So, after the first day, I was irritated, and thought that there should definitely be an age limit for the museum. However, on the second day at the museum, I saw much different behavior; when kids got off the elevator and saw this picture, I watched them completely freeze. I could see that they were shocked at the picture. I saw many kids actually interacting with the exhibit, not just reading something and moving on. My friend Renee and I actually mentioned something to one of the teacher's about how much we appreciated the mature behavior of the kids with her. So, should there be age limit? I'm not sure. What do you think?

And now for the final aspect of the museum...the Hall of Remembrance. Placed at the end of the exhibit, this extravagant room is absolutely breathtaking. Candles line the walls under the names of concentration/death camps; the ceiling is a giant glass entourage of a hexagon (google why it's a hexagon - it's interesting); the simplicity of the space makes you feel as if you're free from the darkness after all. For me, this room made the museum come full-circle. It's a place for reflection, absorption, and remembrance. And it's beautiful. I think it's something we should all get to experience, so I encourage you to go there and think about this event and how it changed us.

notice that there are windows to which we can actually see outside for the first time

Days 2, 3, & 4 - Intertwined into our exhausting schedule was the visiting of memorials in both DC & NYC. Most of the ones we saw were ones that I had been to in the past, so nothing was really "new"; however, 13-year-old Lyndsey never took the time to actually think about why these memorials were built the way they were or how they impacted me as a citizen. I also didn't realize these things until after seeing all of the memorials again. We saw the Jefferson, Lincoln, MLK and FDR memorials: marvelous statues, of course (FDR's a bit more elaborate with many quotes). I mean yeah, statues are awesome, and they show the power that these men had in our past. How could Lincoln in that giant chair not be gawked at? I think that the average American is in awe when seeing these memorials, as we whip out our cameras, creating the classic tourist look. History is fascinating, and how these people contributed to it means a lot. But then we arrive at the other types of memorials - Arlington National Cemetary, the Vietnam Wall, World War II memorial (stunning), 9/11 memorial, etc. What do all of these memorials have in common? The power of names and death. For those of you who know what I'm talking about, it's impossible for one to forget all of the names you bare witness to when you visit these sights. Arlington with it's sprawling 600 acres of deceased soldiers' gravestones; the Vietnam Wall engraved with every man (and woman) who sacrificed their life; the 9/11 memorial with every name carved into the stone encircling the beautiful fountains. So, I came to the conclusion that there is an ironic phenomenon amongst us human beings: we find that the most fascinating and memorable memorials are the ones which were most atrocious events. Wars & tragedies - they're appealing to human nature. We tend to remember the more vicious occurances than the ones that were glorious or cheerful. I'm no psychologist, but this is just what I observed based off of myself and my peers. I wish I had a super rad answer as to why this happens, but I suppose my young brain will just have to continue to be boggled by this concept.

Tomb of the Unkown Solider in Arlington National Cemetary

World War II Memorial

"Empty Sky" Memorial in NJ (actual piece from Twin Towers in front)

A snippet of the 9/11 Memorial in NYC

Jefferson Memorial

MLK Memorial

Snippet of FDR Memorial

A rose placed in an engraved name on the 9/11 Memorial

If you're still with me after all that blabber, I hope that my perspective helped you to form some of your own thoughts on these controversial topics. Before this trip, I never would have thought of some of these things or how they affect our current generation. Human behavior truly is quite interesting. I also encourage all of you to try to visit such places if you are able to, because you never know what you may find intriguing. For me, I've solidified that I belong in Washington DC (or Boston), and definitely not NYC in my future life. That's something I learned about myself. So, give it a whirl.

A few more fun pictures from our adventures...