Today we spent the entire day at the Holocaust Museum. We arrived at 9 a.m. and entered before the general public thanks to some special contacts at the Museum. We spent the morning exploring the permanent exhibit with some special time focusing on the new exhibit "Some Were Neighbors."
The entire day was moving and difficult to describe. We were given the task of exploring the museum by focusing on artifacts. The exciting part for me was to realize that soon I was going to see many of these types of artifacts in their native environment, as many of the artifacts are replicas of the originals. The most difficult part of the museum was walking through the train car that was used to deport innocent victims.
In the afternoon we had two presentations. The first was by Steven who shared with us his top electronic resources for Holocaust material. AMAZING. I leaned so many new ways to integrate the artifacts and incredible material that the Holocaust Museum offers into curriculum.
Then we heard from Rebecca Erbelding, an Archivist at the USHMM. Rebecca shared information on many diaries that are available to use at teaching material in the classroom.
Some highlights:
-Anne Frank Diary. The caution about using Anne Frank's Diary was reiterated by Rebecca (we discussed this in detail yesterday in one of our sessions). This is primarily because Anne's experience during the war was not typical, and as a result, there is caution about using her story as a major part of any curriculum. One book that was mentioned numerous times that may offer a more complete description of the holocaust experience is "Salvaged Pages".
-Rebecca shared a variety of diaries that she has worked on preserving over her eleven years at the museum. Among her favorites is the diary of Selma and Chaim from Sobibor. The story is amazing--Selma and Chaim fall in love while they are both interned at Sobibor, even though they don't have a common language. They fall in love and manage to escape during the uprising....I can't do the story justice but it worth seeing this clip where Rebecca shares their story. And I did not even mention, 160,000 Jews lost their lives in Sobibor and only 50 survived, and Selma and Chaim are among them. Selma is still alive today, and after seeing so much of the devastation it is wonderful to hear this story. Their story is also available on the USHMM site with witness testimony.
-We learned of the diary of Earl Harrison and what became known as the Harrison Report. Earl Harrison was commissioned by President Truman to investigate the treatment of the DP (Displaced Persons) by the US Army. His document became the most significant document of the DP era.
-There are over 200 diaries in the USHMM. During their 20 anniversary that made a plea for individuals to turn in their artifacts. They are racing against the clock to ensure that this material is preserved for future generations.
Tomorrow is a travel day; we leave at noon for Dulles to catch a late afternoon flight to Frankfurt.
Once we arrive at Frankfurt we immediately head to the Jewish Museum of Frankfurt (no time to rest, everyone says you can sleep when you get home). We were given an enormous amount of material to review prior to our visit. The long plane ride will be a great time to catch up on some reading.
My next post will be from Germany...
What a wonderful idea to write this down for all of us to share during your trip. Lots of good human interest stories that I would never know about otherwise. Thanks for sharing! Will wait for next update.
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