The Museum of Tolerance Experience
Travelling Back to the Gruesome Years of Intolerance:The Museum of Tolerance Experience
I know very well the history of the holocaust during the Nazi Germany. I know that Jews were evicted from their homes, brought down from their profession, were made to live in the concentration camps and killed. However, my tour to the Museum of Tolerance in San Diego, California was different to the point that I cannot hide my goose bumps. The technology made the scenes interactive that things appeared to be in the present tense. The portion where they showed us the concentration camps with the black smoke coming from the huge incinerator led me to refreshed my memories of films like the “Schindler’s List” and the “Boy in Striped Pajamas.” I remember vividly the scenes in those movies where Jews are taken to the gas chambers and left to die in suffocation.
The museum is not only showcasing the intolerance during the holocaust against the Jews in Germany but all also the atrocities happened in Latin America, Burma among others. Moreover, it exhibits the daily acts of intolerance even within the United States of America like racism and hate crimes. I was awed to see the classroom exhibit of the “Freedom Writers” which is a popular movie on intolerance that was based on a true story of Erin Gruwell and her students. Looking at the exhibitions made me realized how cruel the world is in the presence of intolerance. On the other hand, I thought that humanity have come a long way already since the condemnation of the holocaust and the continuous role of social movements to eradicate intolerance. On the other hand, I came to know that the museum was built through the initiative of the holocaust survivor, Simon Wiesenthal.
When we entered the museum, we were given a card with a picture of a boy who suffered during the holocaust. For me, it was heart wrenching to hear the real story from the story tellers of the museum on the terrors that a child had to endure during those times. I was just thankful that I was not born in the same place at the same time. It might sound selfish to feel thankful of not experiencing the terrors but I cannot imagine how I would survive if I was in the said situation. On the other hand, I found the boy courageous for having an indomitable spirit to survive despite the desolate and hopeless situation. Meanwhile, up to this time, I cannot fathom how other people with immense power can treat human beings as such. How could they stomach seeing bodies piled after dying in a gas chamber? I asked myself, did they feel even pity towards the children whose identities are just numbers?
The museum also allowed us to hear stories from some survivors of the holocaust. They told us details on how they struggled to survive. They even told us their stories of hopelessness, nightmares after the holocaust, and their survival mechanisms. Until now, I cannot the pain, fear, and hatred that the survivors felt even after the gruesome years in the history of humanity. It was however unbelievable how the survivors retold the stories. It must be hard to tell stories of terror because it feels like the person is undergoing the experience several times over. I admired their bravery of facing many people occasionally and retell their horrors for the sake of enlightening people especially young people on intolerance issues.
For the educators who are near the Museum of Tolerance, it is fruitful to include a tour in the curriculum. It will help the kids especially those who have tendencies of bullying and racism to change their ways. The stories of survivors from the horrors of intolerance not only during the holocaust are worth retelling for humanity to draw lessons from.
