Without hearing what it was about, Janka, my other Hungarian classmate and I decided to go to the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles as extra credit for our Race and Racism class. I learned in school what the Holocaust was, and imagined it to be a terrible genocide, but nothing awakens emotions and paints as realistic a picture as a first-hand recount of the events. The reality of the torture of the Holocaust and the heartrending speech of a survivor left us with overwhelming feelings of sadness, anger, and physical discomfort.
Upon arrival to the museum we were ushered into a lecture hall to hear the speech of a survivor of the Holocaust. When Elizabeth Mann said her first sentence I recognized she was Hungarian from her accent, which immediately …show more content…
Different sized television screens oddly placed in a vertical manner showing a man talking with an annoying attitude about prejudice. Then the two choices of doors to walk through, either prejudice, or not prejudice. The not prejudice did not open, and a lady let us in through the prejudice door, saying that is the only one open, since everybody is prejudice about something. We were each given a picture of a child to later find out how the Holocaust changed their lives. The group was guided through what looked like a typical German street in the 1940’s, with store windows and radio announcements, highlighting Hitler as a great leader. Videos of the order of the German army seemed immense, the shooting down of people falling in their pre-dug graves, and pictures of starved bony bodies added to the increasing feelings of disgust, and grief-struck we felt. Footage of German school children brainwashed with anti-Semitic teachings, cheering for Hitler as if a great ruler, civilians picking up guns and shooting innocent Jews made me realize the immense manipulating power of hate and the devastation destruction it is capable of carrying
Upon arrival to the museum we were ushered into a lecture hall to hear the speech of a survivor of the Holocaust. When Elizabeth Mann said her first sentence I recognized she was Hungarian from her accent, which immediately …show more content…
Different sized television screens oddly placed in a vertical manner showing a man talking with an annoying attitude about prejudice. Then the two choices of doors to walk through, either prejudice, or not prejudice. The not prejudice did not open, and a lady let us in through the prejudice door, saying that is the only one open, since everybody is prejudice about something. We were each given a picture of a child to later find out how the Holocaust changed their lives. The group was guided through what looked like a typical German street in the 1940’s, with store windows and radio announcements, highlighting Hitler as a great leader. Videos of the order of the German army seemed immense, the shooting down of people falling in their pre-dug graves, and pictures of starved bony bodies added to the increasing feelings of disgust, and grief-struck we felt. Footage of German school children brainwashed with anti-Semitic teachings, cheering for Hitler as if a great ruler, civilians picking up guns and shooting innocent Jews made me realize the immense manipulating power of hate and the devastation destruction it is capable of carrying