Overview
The museum of tolerance provides unique experiences that are influenced by the cultural and historical events especially based on prejudice and discrimination that took place in the past. The museum is owned by a Jewish human right organization through its education arm. I must admit that the assignment gave me a rare opportunity to learn and experience on events that have transpired on human life in the past changing my entire perspective on the importance of the freedom we enjoy today irrespective of our cultures and diversity.
One of the important sections of the museum is the holocaust sector. The section contains the details of the Jewish persecution under the era of the Nazi leadership where more than 1.5 innocent children died through maltreatment and neglect. Another exhibition that had an impact me was the Anna Frank exhibit. Some of the resources in the holocaust were the paper project film, and Moriah film, which details the collection of those who perished during this traumatizing event in history.
Other exhibits include the resources on discrimination of the Jews based on culture, the Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler among others.
The museum of tolerance uses high technology to interact with the visitors in the virtue field trip. Exploring the idea of human rights, the museum engages the visitors in finding solutions to some of problems in the society regarding human rights like exploitation of women and children. The tour guide was of much help in explaining various exhibits in the museum that I would not have understood by myself. Well, these events might have happened in the past, but the experiences made me strongly and emotionally feel like I was part of the happenings.
Cultural diversity
The world is made up of different people who are culturally diverse. The holocausts exhibition and other exhibits give people an opportunity to understand the bad experiences that the Jewish people underwent through in the World War II. The virtual trip to the museum of tolerance reveals a broad set of traits that define the culture of the Jewish people and their German persecutors. The resources provide details of how different norms, attitude and beliefs influenced the cruelty directed towards the Jewish culture.
Unlike today, in the holocausts era different cultures did not coexist under the social structures that are present today. The overlap between the culture and ethnicity that exists today defined where an individual belonged. A Jew was a Jew despite of the country of residence, the Germans considered all the Jews an inferior race. The cultural diversity and leadership series offers a significant link on what is learnt in classroom and the actual experience in cultural diversity. Some of the impact the visit to the museum plays on cultural diversity includes creating awareness on various cultures that defined cultural diversity and how they contributed to the events like holocaust. The visit also creates understanding and knowledge on cultural diversity enhancing the knowledge learnt in the classroom. Some of the lessons I learnt from the visit to the museum of tolerance includes accepting and appreciating the role that cultural diversity plays in our society.
New ideas
The visit gave me an opportunity to know many things that I did not know on the Nazi party. The party that began as a gang of soldiers rose to become the legal government led by Adolf Hitler. The museum of tolerance showed the all the details and the timeline of the holocaust experience which are essential in understanding the contribution of the Jewish culture and how it led to their destruction. The resources provided by the exhibit are firsthand experience of the holocaust victims. The experience created a psychological and physical awareness of the cruelty of the events to the Jewish people.
I was not fully aware of the tragedy and the sorrow of the holocaust experience before visiting the virtual trip. I learned about Anna frank and the sacrifice efforts she put in helping his fellow Jewish citizens. From the several years of learning on holocaust experience in high school and college years, the old documents and the pictures provided from the museum of tolerance enhance that knowledge. My impression of the Nazi uniform used in the war, personal effects from the survivors and the victims among other artifacts portrayed a picture of the events as they occurred in the past.
I also learnt that unlike today, cultural differences played a significant role in the cruelty of the Germans towards during the times of the holocaust. Through the Ann Frank exhibit, I learnt through the first hand experience of what the holocaust victims were going through in order to survive. The visits also made me realize the vulnerability of the children from the experience as they were most affected by sleeplessness, terrorism, anxiety, confusion and stress related trauma. Irrespective of their age, children were taken away from their parents, which was a total disregard of their rights. Unlike today where children rights are a priority, the visit made realize that the community was no longer concerned with global issues as it is the case by today.
Perspective
In my perspective, such events that happen in the history are significant in helping us learn and avoid such events from happening in future. The virtual field trip changed my perspective on the holocaust as I came first hand with the experience from victims and survivors. The world has become a different place from the experience and lesson from the holocaust and united to avoid a repetition in the future.
The impact of trip changed my view on the contributions that we should make as a society to safeguard the life of people against evil rules and dictators. It is the responsibility of the society to take drastic measures to ensure that such evils do not repeat. The story of Ann Frank in particular changed my perspective on only the big and influential people in the society can make a difference.
Evaluation
I would strongly recommend everyone to visit the museum for the first hand experience on the survivors of the holocaust and other historical artifacts. Even though reading from textbook one can still learn on the experiences, the opportunity from the museum gives the viewers a chance to feel and relate it to events by creating a true sense of compassion. The virtual trip provided a cost effective way to interact with museum just like a field trip in a cost effective way. However, I would recommend that the museum add more interactive sessions, special events and program to enhance the experience of the visitor even more. This will also engage the minds and the hearts other site visitors in learning this crucial part of history.