I just thought I'd give a small update, I will do a proper trip report in a few weeks but I think this deserves its own seperate update.
Today we went to The Museum of Tolerance. It has a few difference sections / exhibitions, all based on different aspects of human rights, racism, terrorism, and The Holocaust.
The main exhibition has 2 sections
- A general human rights, racism, terrorism exhibition
- The Jewish Holocaust
There is a separate Anne Frank exhibition which is an extra charge
They also have scheduled talks by Holocaust survivors which are included in the ticket price.
We paid $15.50 each for an adult ticket. I tried to buy online in advance but their system would not accept payment from outside USA..
We were there from 12.15pm to 4pm and could have spend longer as we didnt do the Anne Frank exhibition.
We started in the general human rights, racism, terrorism exhibition. This is a short walk through multi media exhibition.
At 1pm we went to a small lecture threatre style room where Holocaust survive Renee Firestone aged 95, spoke for over an hour, telling her story. This is such an incredible, moving and and extremely special experience, which I wasnt expecting.
You can Google her and read about her but in short
- She is from Eastern Europe, the area around Ukraine, Hungary and Slovakia.
- When she was about 20, the Germans invaded the area and her family with all the other Jewish families were told they had to go to Germany to work.
- They were herded into cattle trains and expected a journey of approx 6 to 7 hours.
- 3 DAYS LATER they reached their final destination.
- They did not know at the time, but the train went from their home in Eastern Europe, through various countries and cattle carriage after cattle carriage on the train was filled with Jewish people.
- Their final destination was Auschwitz in Poland
- When they were finally allowed off the train, they were split into groups
- The old people were put into one group, the children into another group, then men into another group and women into another group.
- She was separated from her parents and her brother but managed to stay in the same group as her sister.
- They found out afterwards that the old people and the children were taken direct from the train to the gas chambers.
- In the camp , the men and women were kept separate
- After 6 months in Auschwitz. she was separated from her sister and found out afterwards her 16 year old sister was killed by medical experiments in the camp.
- After 14 months in Auschwitz. she was part of a group selected to go a factory camp
- The factory was liberated by the Russians and Renee managed to get back to Budapest , Hungary
- She found her brother and father, and stayed in Budapest.
- She married and eventually came to America and became a fashion designer.
- Now she spends her time, as much as she can, telling her story
After listening the Renee Firestone we went back downstairs to the main Holocaust exhibition.
This is a walk through multi media exhibition which takes over an hour to go through.
You are given a card with a photo and a name and at various stage through out the exhibition you insert the card into a computer and you follow that persons journey during the war
Its a very hard exhibition to experience, there are real photos and videos from the death camps, and you hear and see some of the more harrowing stories.
I have been to a Dachau Concentration Camp in Germany, so I knew what to expect, but my friends were a bit overwhelmed with some of the graphic testimonies and footage.
After the exhibition we got a special extra experience. The exhibition and various areas of the museum have volunteers as well as regular paid staff. When we went to the Holocaust section, an elderly gentleman volunteer gave us a short introduction before we went through. At the end of the exhibition, he came over and explained the final section, which is a wall of quotes by various non Jews who were part of the resistance during The War and who tried to help Jews escape or hide. He pointed out one quote, which was by Oscar Schindler. It turns out, this elderly gentleman volunteer is the son of a man saved by Oscar Schindler. But even more amazing, this elderly gentleman's father was non other than Leopold "Poldek" Pfefferberg, the man who helped Thomas Keneally to write the book Schindler's Ark which was eventually made into a film by Stephen Spielberg called Schindlers List!
With todays current world climate, the exhibitions and stories are still just as relevant in 2019 as they were in 1945.
Renee and the other survivors wont be around for much longer.
These stories need to be told and retold and never forgotten.
LA is not just the glitz and glamour , if you are have the time to go to Hollywood Boulevard, or The Grove, you really should make the time to go a bit further down and go to The Museum of Tolerance