Museum's contents confront bigotry
Campus Times
October 3, 1997
"They're taking all the good jobs," says a Hispanic woman
on a video screen. "What are we going to do?"she added. An African
American woman responds, "Let them go back to where they came from."
Founded to confront bigotry and illustrate the contemporary relevance
of the Holocaust is the Beit Hashhoah or "House of the Holocaust,"
otherwise known as the Museum of Tolerance.
In this environment visitors are challenged on their attitudes toward
everything ranging from affirmative action to homosexuality and at every
turn, they must make choices regarding each.
Invited into the entrance of the Tolerance section is a huge display
of pictures displaying the ideal America. When walking into the exhibit
the hallway is filled with images of children eating ice cream, and men
and women laughing. Then almost like a bolt of lightning visitors are confronted
with the smart wit comments of a man in a gray suit who's image jumps in
and out of the 10 scattered screens. His image and voice become a regular
part of the tour as he continually asks the visitor to rack their mind for
the right answer to some of societies questions and prejudged ideas of racism,
homosexuality, and other issues.
Next, visitors are stopped and asked to assess what type of person they
are. They are then guided to two doors choosing either a red door marked
"Prejudiced" or a green door "Unprejudiced." Guests
can hear, see, and experience divisiveness for yourself.
A sign reading "The potential for violence is within all of us"
is lit and then a huge sign that reads "Think" is casted along
the dark walls.
The museum's first section is a brightly lighted tolerance workshop
that explors the phenomenon of prejudice through interactive exhibits with
names such as "Me... a bigot?"
"The Other America" exhibit features a wall sized, computer
interactive map documenting and locating 250 hate groups in the United States.
Visitors may then look up groups like the Klu Klux Klan, neo-Nazis,
skinheads and white supremicists and one can find a brief history of these
organizations.
Other interactive exhibits dramatically engage visitors in real life
situations. "Pop Up Heads" has the heads of different men and
women of minority speak on stereotypes about their race. It asks the question
"Are we real or stereotypes?"
In the "Whisper Gallery" the visitor can overhear a conversation,
between Joe Cool, Mr. Normal, and Miss Up-Tight, which includes racist and
sexual slurs.
Down the hall, a multimedia film about the civil rights movement slices
the words of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. with images of his struggle
in this time of civil movement.
Onto the history of the Holocaust, visitors are asked to witness one
of history's most horrific experiences of man's inhumanity to man, unlike
the tolerance section where visitors are free to wander from exhibit to
exhibit. In this atmosphere the visitor is forced on a tour that takes people
back in time to 1920s Germany then walks forward to present time.
Guests are lead through a lightened tour with each scene a new skit.
In the beginning of the tour they receive a photo passport of a child caught
up in the Holocaust. Midway through, visitors check to learn more about
their child, but not until the end of the tour is the child's fate revealed
to the guest.
The museum saves the most powerful section for last, a walk into the
Warsaw Ghetto and through the barbed gates of a concentration camp. Visitors
are again asked to pick a door "Able-bodied"or "Children-others."
No matter which they choose, all end up in the same bunker like room.
The gas chamber has 11 monitors mounted onto its gray walls where visitors
can see and hear the stories of the Holocaust survivors.
At the exit a sign reads "Who was Responsible?"
The musuem's primary goal was to engage the visitor using surprise and
even humor, to promote discussion if themes many people work hard to avoid.
Aware that the attention of musuem goers tend to wander, and that abstract
subjects such as ethics and morality make them wander all the more.
The designers strive to create constant change. Every detail, the texture
of the walls, the layout of the room, intend to stimulate.
The desire to cast a wider net, to reach people who are not particularly
interested in the Holocaust, is one of the musuem's central missions.
It was created primarilary for younger audiences who are more likely
to view the Nazis' campaign as a distant era.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance is located on West
Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles. Admission is $8 for adults, $6 for senior
citizens, $5 for students (with identification) and $3 for children (3-10
yrs).
It is open Monday-Thursday 10 a.m.-4 p.m. On Friday and Sunday times
may vary. For more information call (310) 553-8403.
