United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is a long way from us. You can hardly decide to run in for a quick visit, but that doesn't mean it is not available to you when ever you're in the mood for a bit of history or need information on the Holocaust for a homework assignment.

This past summer I was able to attend a workshop at USHMM right before the annual American Library Association (ALA) meetings in Washington D.C. They talked about a lot of the different resources available in their collections and invited a survivor to speak to us. As part of ALA we were also able to use our conference badges to get into the exhibits at any time during the conference and the day after the conference. The exhibit is very neat to go through and it is a very touchingly done, I couldn't help but think that I would have gotten so much more out of it with fewer people around me so I didn't feel like I needed to hurry and let the next hundred people take a look. I'm thrilled that the USHMM has such a high visitation, but I've gotten more out of my visits to concentration camps, partly because of the quiet contemplative atmosphere that is more regularly found there. I realize this is a spatial issue for them. In a camp the entire camp is your memorial, the USHMM has a relatively small building to accommodate a lot of interested visitors. My favorite room in the USHMM was the Hall of Remembrance. It is a quiet room with just few people passing through it. With sunlight streaming through the skylight, epitaphs carved in to the walls, niches for candles to be lit, and an eternal flame burning - this was the perfect setting to house the earth that had been collected from each of the concentration camps. Upon entering the room you could feel the quiet. A quiet that is both comforting and disturbing at the same time. It was a marvelous site in the memorial to sit for a while and reflect on the past as well as on the present - to remember the dead and the survivors.

Since we all cannot get to the memorial museum to experience this as often as we may like, the USHMM has made it possible for each of us to experience may parts of their collections without ever leaving our homes! So when you have time you'd like to spend learning about the Holocaust or any issue related to genocide, or have a homework assignment associated with genocide, you can log onto their website and find a lot of great information.

The main page lets visitors know about new information and resources available on their website. Take a look at a recently donated scrapbook that shows a unique collection of photographs documenting the life of SS officers at Auschwitz. From the main page you have many options to suit a wide variety of needs. There is a Holocaust Encyclopedia, and animated map to inform visitors about the history surrounding the Holocaust, a section on education, and one on research. There are also links to help inform people about current issues involving genocide.

One of the links on their site takes you to a list of online exhibits. Take a look at the exhibit for Silent Witness: The Story of Lola Rein and Her Dress. The link for "Exhibit Information" will take you to photos and information included in their permanent exhibit as well as other exhibits currently on display at the museum. When you click into their "Collections and Archives" you will find a treasure trove of Holocaust information available to you from your home or library.

In this section there is the Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive at the USHMM which has more than 800 hours of motion picture footage in its holdings. And, luckily for us, a large percentage of these are viewable online. View this footage of American leaders speaking out against Nazi violence in 1938. If you have trouble hearing what they are saying someone has typed the text and it is in the catalog record next to the film viewer. I've taken a look at several of these films, both silent and with sound, and they have all given valuable perspectives on life during and after the Nazi era. Another section, "Life after the Holocaust", takes you into a recording of the experiences of survivors after the war.

We often have people looking for information on the Holocaust and this is a wonderful resource for them that is, tragically, underused. Take a look and see the points I've highlighted, but don't stop there. There are so many other resources available on the website. You should really take an hour some time and see what's there.

Elizabeth