Week 15: Research

This week I have come to know the librarians and curators at the USHMM quite well. I am currently writing my own research paper as well as helping a fellow staff member with his research. The research topic I am discussing in my personal paper focuses on how prejudice, segregation and anti-Semitic ideals have existed long before Hitler's rise to power. I am looking at past laws and regulations against the Jewish people and comparing them to Hitler's treatment of the Jews up to a certain year. My main research focuses on the struggles of the Jews up until 1941 with the implementation of death camps and the Einsatzgruppen. No event in history can compare to those years following. The museum library has more than enough sources on anti-Semitism, starting from the Roman Empire in 70 CE up until anti-Semitism today. The museum also has one exhibit section that discusses the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an anti-Jewish publication filled with malicious lies about the Jewish people. Published in 1903 the work has been instrumental in fueling the feelings of Jewish hatred and has since then been deemed inaccurate and fabricated, yet is still used today by neo-Nazis and other organizations. Attached to this exhibit is an incredible video of anti-Semitism throughout the millenniums, focusing on the Spanish inquisition, the Protestant reformation (Martin Luther preached many anti-Semitic ideals), and current events. All this research has led to my utmost respect towards Jews and their resilience throughout not just the twentieth century, but throughout thousands of years.

The other research I am partaking in involves the event known as the Orodour-sur-Glane massacre. This was just one massacre that took place in France and resulted in the death of 642 Jews, the youngest being a ten-day old child and the oldest a 91-year-old grandmother. I assisted with finding the names, ages, professions and dates of birth of each victim. In all honesty, the staff member I was working with did most of the research, I mostly helped with typing and organizing the information. This research will be presented at the museum's Day of Remembrance event, held on Yom Hashoah. Yom Hashoah is most commonly known as Holocaust Remembrance Day and takes place every year on the anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. I was fortunate and able to make an extra copy of the sheet to keep for myself.

Besides my own research, I was also fortunate enough to sit in on a fellowship program. The museum has been amazing in providing various enrichment opportunities for us interns and this fellowship program was one of them. The program I attended was given by a PhD student at American University whose research focused on the Austrian police force, specifically their transition of police law after the Anschluss. After her presentation, a question and comment panel ensued and she could hear feedback and suggestions from Holocaust scholars and historians who work for the museum. It was a surreal and intimidating experience, but an enriching and informative one as well as I was surrounded by a group of scholars all participating in intelligent and insightful conversation. I strive to one day be as well-read and knowledgeable on such topics as these men and women were.

I only have 2 more weeks left at the USHMM and will be sad to leave such an incredible institution, yet am looking forward to the oncoming years of continuous learning and growing.

Survivors and Surviving

This week I have been lucky enough to work one on one with two survivors. One survivor had a granddaughter whose name was Lauren and said until his granddaughter arrived I could fill in. His name was Henry Goldbaum and he was 89 years old. His father died before the war broke out in 1939 and his mother and sisters died upon entering Auschwitz.

The other survivor I was lucky enough to get to know was Jacqueline, when I assisted her facilitation with a group of marines from Quantico. She was born in France and her and her family moved to the unoccupied territory of France once Germany took over. They were saved by the mayor of some small farm town who kept them in hiding and provided them with false identification papers so that they may move freely through the town without question. Jacqueline's brother became depressed starting at a young age. Every member of her nuclear family had survived, but her brother committed suicide when he turned 18. Her happy ending was not as happy as we had expected.

Many of the interns here do not like participating and aiding in the survivor talks because they find it boring; however, I can't understand this. There is no boring story when one listens to a survivor speak, for each talk is one of sorrow, cunningness, miracles, and loss. To say it is boring is taking away the importance of what they have to say. We should all be lucky enough to meet at least one survivor in our lives. They've lived many lives in their lifetime and have many lessons to share, and they are a privilege to know.

As for what I did besides talk with survivors, I learned that I have gotten a handle on my reaction under stress. Today, we had three registered groups of over 80 kids each come in at once all wanting to be the first group inside. Here at the museum, we do fist come first serve with groups. If one group has tickets for 2, another for 2:30 and the 2:30 group gets here first, we would take them before the 2 o’clock group. Chaperones were not happy today and therefore arranging three groups, 2 being dreaded middle schoolers, was no easy feat. I was calm, cool and collected through it and received praise and appreciation from many of the unaggressive chaperones.

Right after handling the groups, I was directed over to 14th street where 2 lines- just as long as the group line- were forming. Everything was running smoothly until one security scanner decided to break down. We now had to figure out how to get the visitors from that broken down line over to the working line without cutting in front of anyone and keeping new visitors from entering. Between me and my boss, we got everyone inside in a timely organized manner by blocking off the working line. Once that line was through, we brought in the people from the broken line, and when they were through we opened the line back up. It was fast, efficient and I felt no stress or panic. My tolerance towards high-stress situations has improved tremendously and I didn't realize it until today.

Because it was truly terribly busy today.

Week 13: Pureness

This week, my faith in humanity was restored and I was reminded of how innocent and blind children are to race and discrimination. We received a letter in our employee break room from a mother and her 10 year old daughter, Maya. Maya was reading a book and did not understand the word Nazi. She proceeded to ask her mom what it was and her mom gave her a quick lesson on the Holocaust. Maya was fascinated by this and proclaimed that there should be a museum dedicated to the Holocaust and her mother told her about us. Now Maya happened to be a girl scout and told her mom that she would like to send the museum cookies to brighten our days. “It would be pretty sad to see that; it would be nice if they could have some free cookies after.” Today was the best morning to receive those cookies because today was the first day of a long weekend of storms. After having a few days of beautiful sunny weather, we were greeted this morning with thunder and a downpour of rain. Already being a pitiful start to the day and having to be out in the rain to pass out museum tickets, hearing that there were girl scout cookies in the staff room was the greatest news. And then reading the letter written by Maya and her mom was the icing on the cake. Maya’s pure heart could be felt by everyone.

Besides having the great pleasure of receiving that letter, I was able again to participate in another First Person event. This time around, the survivor was Irene Weiss, an Auschwitz survivor. Irene was 13 years old when her, her parents and her five siblings were transferred to Auschwitz from Czechoslovakia. In Czechoslovakia, under Hungarian ,occupation, Irene's hair was shaved when her and her family were moved to a nearby ghetto. Although, Irene attributes this to her survival in Auschwitz becuase during the selection process her mother and younger siblings were sent one way and her and her older sister were sent the other. Unbeknownst at the time, her mother and siblings were sent to the gas chambers, but the scarf worn on her head made her seem older than 13 and therefore the SS officer directed her with the older women. Her father was put in charge of transferring the bodies into the crematorium and was killed after three months of this work. What I did not know was that every three months they usually killed theses workers because the work becomes too much for the men to handle and eventually makes them mentally incapable of continuing. Her father was one of those men. Her sister survived until liberation in 1945, yet died shortly afterwards from starvation and illness. Irene was a lively woman though, and thanked me for assisting with her talk. She said I was important to her because I would go on to retell her story and therefore her family will be remembered through history long after she was dead. So that is what I am doing; retelling her story for all nine of you who actually read this blog. Below is a picture of me complimenting Irene on her fantastic outfit and scarf.

I am using this space to write what was said in Maya's letter because it was so sweet and beautiful. It is written out just as she wrote it, so I'm sorry for the fourth grade sentence structure. 

Hi my name is Maya Simons and I am reading Magic Tree House "Danger in the Darkest Hour" (World War II). Holocaust, Hitler, all the people that died. It made me feel really really bad. I thought eating cookies after seeing something sad cookies might make people feel better. 💗"

True pureness and innocence. 

Week 12: Safety

When dignitaries enter any location, security and protocol must be tended to first above all else, including visitors and convenience. No matter how many school groups enter at the same time, carrying 100 children a piece, and how angry their chaperones get when they're told to wait, the public must be put on hold to ensure a comfortable and smooth experience for the VIP guest. The particular VIP guest that entered our museum yesterday happened to be the former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich. We were told not an hour before that he would be visiting the museum and fast preparation had to be planned and carried out. As hordes of agents came into the museum leading up to the arrival of Gingrich, school groups and regular visitors had to be tended to last, which was difficult for a staff entirely designed to handle visitors first. We ended up having to bar visitors from entering the main exhibit, creating a surplus of excess students with no place to keep them. The entire lobby and lower level was filled with visitors waiting to enter, and as more visitors joined the line and time passed, our special guest still hadn't arrived. Keeping angry parents and bratty teenagers at bay was the worst part of this whole experience and I, overseeing the lower level, had to call in my CO for backup. Once Mr. Gingrich finally arrived and entered the main exhibit, the only thing left was for us to wait for him to exit. I do not know how much time had passed before he exited the exhibit, but knew he was coming from the large men in suits surrounding the staircase. Mr. Gingrich could be seen right in the middle of his entourage, however if you didn't know who was there, you never would've recognized him. One student on a field trip ran to her school and said that a survivor was walking down the staircase and that was why everyone was stopped and taking pictures. The news spread like wildfire around the school group and beyond, but what they didn't know was that right next to them an actual survivor stood and watched this entire scene unfold.

About ten minutes before Mr. Gingrich came down the steps, I started a conversation with a volunteer also waiting to catch a picture of the Secretary, and we began a discussion about politics. Before I knew it, Rea had told me that she knew all about the power that governments hold. She wouldn't go into much detail, but I did find out that she was from Poland and was very young during the time of the Holocaust, not even being a teenager during the rise of Hitler. However, a survivor none the less, she was a pleasure to talk too. If only these kids had known that not even ten feet away from them was a real survivor open to engage in conversation; me being the only blockade between both parties.

However, safety is not only considered when VIP guests show up at the museum, but from open to closing hours and after. Certain protocols and signals have to be radioed in for special situations: 1080 for a suspicious bag and 1031 for a suspicious person. However, protocols can change when an emergency happens, like when there is a gunman at the Capitol building mere miles down the road.

Yesterday morning as we were welcoming our first arrivals, our supervisor received a call at the group's desk. I had happened to be working groups at that time and saw how his reaction changed from the friendly smile that I know, to a worried frown that I hope to never see again. He pulls me off to the side and tells me that there was a shooting at the Capitol building and multiple people were injured. The last piece of information he shared with me was that they were chasing the gunman down in his car. He told me to be on my guard, but not to tell anyone as to not cause public panic. I spent the next thirty minutes terrified at what might happen if the gunman decided to enter the Museum from his car, as the London incident at Big Ben kept playing in the back of my mind. I saw multiple security officers switch to the front of the museum and our regular bomb sniffing canine was out and about sniffing the trash cans and recycling bins. For visitors just entering, it looked like it was a normal safety check routine, and VS staff did our best to play it off as if nothing was happening. People in the museum already had no idea what was happening outside the museum walls. After a few more minutes. my supervisor returned to update me on the situation. It turned out no one was shot, only an officer was injured by the gunman's vehicle, and that they had caught the guy during the car chase. Knowing all the facts and appreciating the fact that it wasn't as bad as we had thought, the day returned to normal. The bomb dogs came back inside and our security team dispersed. Until Gingrich came later that day.

In the amount of time between hearing the initial news of the shooting and the facts, I have never acted so well in my entire life. Smiling as if I wasn't terrified that we may be next and thinking about all those victims shot. However, we got through it, avoided public panic, and the day continued with no issues. I learned that I must remember where I am, and that with all the history and politics in D.C. comes plenty of targets, either politicians or innocent victims enjoying their visit to the national monuments. One can never put their guard down in a big city.

Week 11: Starstruck

In the past two weeks, I have been given more opportunities than imaginable. I know I say that every week, but each week continues to amaze and surprise me. Seeing as how I've worked at the USHMM for about a month now, I have found what I excel most in and where I lack skills or ambition. I absolutely adore talking to people and telling them what to do. When a group of people listen to my instructions, a sense of all-powerfulness washes over me and I feel just like Oz, the great and powerful wizard. Although I've also realized I do lack the necessary skills to be ordered by people or do favors for them. This is my pride and ego talking. Working in coat check is the worst job I've ever had, solely because my own pride won't allow me to move past the fact that I am acting as a servant to these visitors. Pride is something I have come to acknowledge and am still learning to maintain.

So enough of what I've learned and on to what I've done. Last week I was fortunate enough to receive a 2.5-hour shift working a First Person event. First Person is an event held through Spring and Summer that is both free and open to the public. The event is a conversation with Holocaust survivors, when two times a week different survivors come to recount their stories. It is hosted by journalist Bill Benson and offers time at the end for the audience to ask the survivor questions. The day I worked, I was helping Susan Warsinger give her presentation. I made pamphlets, ushered, and gave assistance to those who had questions when she finished her talk. Susan and her younger brother were smothered out of Germany after the events of Kristallnacht to Paris, France. From Paris, she fled to Versailles and spent a few months as a refugee living in the Palace of Versailles. HIAS, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, found Susan and her brother and they were given permission to go to the United States. They boarded a ship sponsored by the former first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, with fifty other children. Susan told the story with such personality and humor, that the audience couldn't help but instantly fall in love with her.

Starting from right to left:  Diane Ackerman (author),
Angela Workman (screenwriter),
Jessica Chastain (lead actress), and Niki Caro (director)

Than yesterday, an opportunity came that I wouldn't have expected in a thousand years: a movie premier equipped with stars and major Hollywood directors, screenwriters, and authors. The USHMM catered to a crowd of over 400 people who were all there to see the film premier of The Zookeeper's Wife, a new film starring Jessica Chastain about a couple who hid Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto. Not only was I able to see Jessica Chastain, but the author of the book, the director of the movie, and the screenwriter. It was a stunning and extremely inspirational all female team. We were originally told we had the chance to go the event, but we would have to work it. As the event started, my fantastic boss told us to take off our jackets and join the party. We could eat, drink, and socialize with all the attendees. When the movie started, they saved seats for us interns at the very front of the theatre. There was nothing more surreal than watching a movie about an event from the Holocaust inside the National Holocaust Museum and amongst the creators, stars, and Holocaust survivors. The movie doesn't premier until March 31 and I highly encourage anyone reading this to go and watch it. It is a truly amazing film. A taping of the brief panel discussion between the author, director, screenwriter and Chastain- which occurred before the movie- can be found on YouTube.

Thinking that my week couldn't get any better than going to a movie premier, today I had the pleasure in assisting with a survivor facilitation. This was a personal survivor presentation between Ms. Theodora Klayman and a small group of sixth graders. Susan, the survivor I listened to last week, happens to be best friends with Dora and was in the audience to listen to her speak. Dora and her younger brother were smuggled out of Yugoslavia, now Croatia, to a small town on the northern tip. One day, the Nazi's came into their home and took her whole family, but left her and her brother behind. Her parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles all perished in the ongoing years of the Holocaust. As if it couldn't get worse, just as the War was coming to an end, her younger brother died of scarlet fever. These kids were enthralled and moved to tears by her story, as was I. At the end of the facilitation, I talked with Susan and Dora for a few minutes and saw how quickly they acted like young girls together.

Very few interns have been given the chance to witness these talks and I do not know what has made me so lucky, but I thank the universe every day for the opportunities I am given.

I know I have written a lot, but would like to share one more story. Today, while doing my sweep of the Hall of Remembrance, I met a woman and her brother who were both Jewish. We began a conversation about Passover and continued to talk from there. She is what is known as a third-generation Holocaust survivor, as her grandfather lost nine of his kids in the Holocaust. Her father was the only one to survive. In honor of them, she told me that she has nine kids, one for each that Hitler took away. That was a story that really struck a chord and I wanted to share it with all of you.

Week 9: Reflections

This week marked my first week interning without a staff member present to shadow, and if I've learned anything from it, it is that school groups are just the worst. It makes me so thankful that I dropped my education minor and I now fully understand why professors choose to teach college rather than high school or middle school. One of my main jobs is handling large student groups who come to the museum to see our permanent exhibit. When I first orient them, I try to remind them that they are in a memorial museum, and that it is a place to remember, reflect and pay respect to those lives lost in the Holocaust. Although for some reason, students seem to equate this with talking loudly, leaving behind trash, and running in exhibit spaces. I've quickly learned that there is only so many times one can reprimand a group of teenagers. This is probably the most frustrating job that I am in charge of, yet can occasionally be fulfilling. When those occasional students break off from the group and take their time to explore and really understand the exhibit, they leave with a completely different face than those who do not. This I guess can go back to my blog from a few weeks ago about my goals; that if I can change one person's view on history and society, I will have fulfilled my definition of greatness.

And sometimes it happens.

Today though, I was fortunate enough to receive a tour of the Some Were Neighbors exhibit from the curator who created the temporary exhibition. Susan Bachrach, a historian who has been with the USHMM for over 20 years, gave a two-hour tour explaining the reasoning behind setting up the exhibit as she did and how she acquired its artifacts and information. Ms. Bachrach explained how hundreds of hours were spent obtaining the information and stories of the perpetrators, bystanders, and victims with the goal of expanding the Holocaust narrative beyond the basic knowledge of Nazi perpetrators. There were many other people besides those a part of the Nazi party who participated in discriminatory acts, sold out their neighbors or friends, and went against their fellow countrymen. However, the exhibit also shows those who did support and/or aid Jews and other targeted groups. One way Susan set up the exhibit was comparing the act of one man with the act of another. In one area of the exhibition, there is a panel describing the story of one police officer who saved his Jewish neighbors, and one police officer who shipped his Jewish neighbors off to the ghetto. One police officer said he was following orders, while the other said his job was to protect the innocent. This dichotomy between the two officers is just one of many examples throughout the exhibition space. Another part of the exhibit, that I find to be the most interesting, is the murder by bullets section. This area is designated to recalling the murderous acts of the Einsatzgruppen and discusses the number of people who died by bullet, rather than of Zyklon B poisoning, disease, and starvation experienced by those in the camps. It's a different take on victims and perpetrators of those outside the ghettos and camps, that many people tend to overlook or briefly acknowledge. 

The museum this week has been crazy busy as Spring breakers and field trips leave us running out of tickets for the permanent exhibition by early noon. With all the people and large groups entering at a single time, the next few months are going to be a test of my patience and my ability to handle responsibilities under stress. 

Week 8:Knowledge

I finally started my internship! It's been a long couple of months, but the wait was worth it. This internship and the USHMM is everything I hoped for and more. This week we have been going through training and orientation, where we were told what our actual jobs are going to entail and given briefs about different departments in the Museum and how they all work together with visitor services. Our main jobs include seven tasks: Passes, ticketing, groups, rover, closing, coat check, and elevator talks. However, we also aid in informing the public about other resources and exhibits the Museum has to offer besides just the main primary exhibit. The primary exhibit is a self-guided chronological tour that starts on the fourth floor and works its way down to the second. The fourth floor exhibits Nazi persecution, the third floor the Final Solution, and finishes with liberation and resistance on the second floor.

USHMM has so many other exhibits and resources that it offers though, besides just the primary exhibit- including a temporary They Were Neighbors exhibit, a Cambodia exhibit, and a face to face video opportunity to talk with a Syrian refugee in real time. This week we were given a tour of both the exhibits, and the new knowledge I have been acquiring is astonishing. I personally didn't know anything about the Cambodian Genocide, yet was completely floored by it. Over two million civilians died in the course of four years, which compared to the Holocaust doesn't seem like many casualties. However, the Holocaust and World War II went on from 1939-1945 and spanned across most of Eastern and Western Europe. Cambodia is a small country in Asia where two million equaled 1/4 of the entire population. This is just the basic knowledge they introduced us too, so I can't imagine how much and what else I will learn in the next three months. Another training we underwent was working with the virtual reality section of the From Memory to Action exhibit. The Museum actually offers a 360-degree virtual reality experience that tells the story of a Syrian refugee and his son. The father narrates the story and the setting constantly changes from his refuge home, to his town that was destroyed, to an overview of Syria, to refugee markets, and so many other places that one can hear, see and feel as if they are there with him. It was my first time test running virtual reality and it is extremely disorienting, where I almost fell of my chair a few times.

This week I was also able to listen to one of over sixty Holocaust survivors partnered with USHMM. The interns and I received a private facilitation with Marty, a Czech survivor of Auschwitz and Mauthausen who lost his parents and six of his eight siblings. His story is one of miracles, as blind luck saved him from death more than once. He spoke about how one day him and some other inmates were forced to dig tunnels when an explosion went off in the tunnel he was working on, yet he was outside going to the bathroom while it happened. Seventy people died in that tunnel and he was the only survivor of the work group. This is just one miracle he received during his time imprisoned.

We lastly got to go on a tour of the architecture of the Museum, so if any visitors ask about the design or layout we can provide them with a clear answer. A few fun facts about the Museum include the architect James Ingo Freed who went to the camps in Poland to get inspiration for the layout and design of the four buildings of the Museum, the Hall of Remembrance which is a six sided building representing the six sides of a Jewish star, and a stream of lights on the floor of the Hall of Witnesses which has a gap in the middle. One interpretation is that this line of lights represents a timeline where the lights missing include the years 1933-1945, where mankind is said to have perished. The lights continue after 1945 when humanity returns to the world. Below are a few pictures of some of the architectural points I mentioned, including a model of the Museum and the gap in the lighting.

This week was the end of our training and so starting next Wednesday, I will be a fully independent intern working alongside an amazing and encouraging staff inside a memorable and monumental memorial of those who've lost their lives to genocide.