The museum of tolerance was a heart touching, life changing experience that I hope everyone could be a part of. The first time I went it really changed the way I see other people and the way I treat other people. It is there because of errors that humans made, it is there to make us learn from them yet we seem not to be open to it. There are a lot of things that reminded me of situations going on right now somewhere else, far or really close; things we sometimes allow to happen.
Firstly, we went back to history, to remember those scenes we were not supposed to repeat; the holocaust section of the museum. This is always the most shocking part because it allows us to understand that part of our history by displaying material evidence that we can see and believe. World War I finished in 1918 when the British and French defeated Germany . The overwhelmed country had then no army or air force and was in great debt with other nations for reparations. A massive depression attacked this northern land and jobs were scarce; forty percent of the population was unemployed.
It was during this convenient time, in 1924, when a failed art student from Austria was released from prison. He had been a really brave soldier throughout the war but was never promoted because nobody believed he would have been a good leader. By the time he came out of prison, the German residents would accept anything as a reason for their misfortune, so this prisoner by the name of Adolf Hitler decided to write a book while he was imprisoned to satisfy the inhabitants' needs. The book was titled Mein Kampf which is German for My Struggle; its main idea was to blame less than one percent of the population; the Jews for every terrible thing that was happening to the country.
Soon after, the frantic hopeless people started to consider his idea, even though it might seem insane now it was a very explanatory suggestion for them; “Get rid of the Jews and all our problems will be solved.” The anti-Semitism was rapidly spreading everywhere and after losing the presidency charge once, he was elected in 1933 by a vast majority as a candidate from the Nazi party, recognized by their famous symbol; the swastika. Hitler wanted to eradicate the Jews from earth, and only England stood up against it. That was until Germany decided to try to conquer the U.S.S.R. (what is now Russia ) because of all its land and power, but the German army just found the country another enemy.
However, most Europe was willing to help the Nazi party succeed and achieve their main goal. The extermination of the Jews was a dire plan that included all disabled people, homosexuals, Jehovah witnesses, Political prisoners and everyone who helped them, without exception of religious representatives. The Jewish community was accused of trying to revolve and start their own country and before they could take some control of the situation, they were being expelled from schools, their rights taken away and they were being forcibly taken into horrible isolated places; ghettos. The United States became aware of this awful situation when Henry Ford brought The Jewish Peril; a book that extended the anti-Semitism.
In less than a month, the quantity of murdered people was alarming. Concentration camps were set up on strategic places and rail roads were bringing more innocent people in to be gassed in gas chambers, burned in ovens, shot or if they were between fourteen and forty years of age and able body they put to work until they would die from diseases and starvation. Fifteen thousand were down in the first month, eleven million by the end of this dreadful era. Even though there was no punishment for not killing Jews, three thousand people joined the battalions and four hundred volunteered to take women and children to nearby forests and shot them.
Finally, the German forces were become weaker and being driven out of Ghettos. Luckily, the allies who were the R.U.S.S., U.S. and England (the only three countries that opposed to Hitler's ideas) invaded the nation in September of 1945. Nevertheless, we wonder if we learned anything from that experience because throughout the rest of the museum we see smaller manifestations of the same kind of believes. There is racism, war, murder, organized groups against certain people and much more appalling things that should never have existed. Last but not least, on the fieldtrip I learned something really important; if we all take responsibility for what we see or live, a lot of those things we are not supposed to repeat will be avoided.
