Holocaust Centre

Yesterday we went on a trip as part of our Judaism module, to the Holocaust Centre near Newark. It's well worth a visit if you haven't been already.

Although I'm not writing an essay on this part of Judaism, it was still interesting, and still very valueable in understanding contemporary Judaism today. Having said that, what spoke to me most was when we were told that since the Holocaust, there have been at least 50 similar atrocities, some still going on now like the situation in Dafur, Sudan. They showed us a video of what's going on there (which I'm sure barely catches the whole picture) and it was incredibly upsetting. To think that this is going on right this minute, and yet one of the most common phrases when talking about the Holocaust is 'never again'. It is also shocking that these things don't make the news as much as they should. It all makes me want to do something to help, but what?

At the Holocaust Centre there was a new exhibition aimed at primary school children. It was extremely interactive and I really enjoyed it! It took you on the story of a Jewish boy called Leo, and you really felt you were part of things! There was his living room and you could sit at the table, smell the soup, touch and pick up everything! The lady explained how they interacted with the children and it sounded really good. It takes them 4 hours to go round the exhibition! It's also carefully censored so that the children aren't told too much in depth about the terrible goings on, but are told enough to grasp the awfulness of the situation. They showed and talked about how his friends stopped hanging out with him as he was a Jew - which we as students found upsetting! There was also a hidden door to find in Leo's father's shop and we all went inside a representation of where the family hid.

The main exhibition was extremely well done too - lots of read and look at - but I'd run out of energy by this point!

We were priviledged to be able to listen to the stories of two Jewish survivors (husband and wife) which really brought things to life for us. Both had spent time in camps and both had lost significant numbers from their families. We could have listened to them talk for hours.

So in short - go visit if you can!