A Momument of Good Deeds- Dallas Holocaust Museum

“I wish you would build a monument for us. One that would reach the sky. A pillar that the whole world would be able to see- a statue not from marble and not from stone, rather from good deeds.”

-Holocaust victim Donya Rosen, age 10, written on a scrap of paper while hiding in a forest on June 23, 1943

On my one day off during MC-12 Initial Qualification Training in Dallas I took a few hours and went downtown to the Holocaust Museum. I have been to so many Holocaust museums (LA, Washington DC, Israel, London) and so I am always surprised when I learn something new at a museum. I was really pleasantly surprised by the Dallas museum, despite it being really small compared to the other ones I've visited.

In the entrance to the museum they had a basic timeline of the Holocaust. Some of the new facts or touching stories that I learned from the audioguide: 

-80% of victims died in the calendar year 1942

-In 1940, a German Jewish doctor arrested and sent to a camp for giving a German patient an emergency transfusion of his own blood to save the patient’s life

-The day of Pearl Harbor was the first day of killing in Chelmo, the first extermination camp—it was a Day of Infamy indeed

-There was a story about a group that was in hiding. One of the little girls had been told by her Mother never to talk. The other people who hid with her assumed she was mute. When liberated and her mother started crying the girl finally said “Mommy, mother, may one cry now, mother?”

The museum was set up around a single day in the war- April 19, 1943. On that particular day, 3 major events happened that were independent of each other but influential in the war.

The first event was one that I knew very little about. It involved a train transport from Auschwitz to Belgium that was attacked and ambushed by 3 members of the Belgian resistance. The ambush was carried out by 3 Belgians: Georges Livchitz, Robert Maistriau and Jean Franklemon. They had taken their plan to the Resistance but refused to help. On the day of the attack they managed to stop a train with only a pistol, a handheld lantern, and 2 sets of pliers. They put the lantern on the track to stop the train, scared the guards by shooting at them with the pistol, and then tried to open 2 cars with the pliers. While the train was stopped, 17 people escaped but they were only able to open one car before they were chased away by the gaurds and the train continued moving. However, the car was still open and when the train reached its destination of Auschwitz, 231 passengers had escaped from the moving train, all of whom survived the war.

The second event was the first day of fighting in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. This exhibit made the argument that saving Jewish lives and taking German lives were mutually exclusive. It was only when the Jews in the ghetto realized they would never be able to save the Jews that they decided to die on their own terms and take as many Germans as possible with them.The Warsaw uprising has always been a part of the Holocaust that I’ve liked. It gave the Jews hope and showed that they weren’t helpless victims and they could fight back. The event was very inspirational to the early Israeli soldiers in War of Independence and continues to be an inspiration today.

The final event was the start of the Bermuda conference. This conference between US and UK was held under the auspices of helping the Jews of Europe but they basically decided ahead of time that they weren’t going to do anything of substance. Many people said that the only way to help the Jews was the win the war and making statements saying what was happening wouldn’t help their cause and so there was systematic withholding of evidence by the US and UK governments. Some politicians fought hard to create policy that would help the Jews, particularly Sen Guy Gillette. Congressman Will Rogers Jr, and Secretary Henry Morgenthau Jr.  The Washington Post made a plea and ended it with “On the field of battle soldiers die. On the field of massacre civilization dies.” Unfortunately, nothing came of the conference and attempts at legislation and it wasn't until the end of the war that the Jews in Europe got any significant relief from the US and UK.

 Also included in the museum was a visiting exhibit from Yad Vashem (the Israeli museum) called A Monument of Good Deeds and it featured children of the Holocaust (both survivors and those who were killed) and things they left behind like drawings, journals, and poems. The most moving was a poem by a child named Avraham Koplowicz entitled The Dream. The poem was translated into many languages and was put to music in Israel. Below in the poem and a link to the video.

The Dream

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0wfvku8n_U

When I grow up and reach the age of  20,

I’ll set out to see the enchanting world.

I’ll take a seat in a bird like a motor;

I’ll rise and soar high into space.

I’ll fly, sail, hover

Over the lovely faraway world.

I’ll soar over rivers and oceans

Skyward shall I ascend and blossom

A cloud my sister, the wind my brother.

I’ll marvel at the Euphrates and the Nile.

I’ll see the Pyramids and the Sphinx

Of ancient Egypt, where the goddess Isis reigned.

I’ll fly over Niagara Falls

And immerse myself in a searing Sahara dune.

I’ll drift over the cloud-strew cliffs of Tibet

And the mysterious land of the wizards;

And once I extricate myself

From the scorching, terrifying wave of heat,

I’ll meander over the icebergs of the north.

By wind I’ll cross the great kangaroo island

And the ruins of Pompeii,

And the Holy Land of the Old Testament,

And over the land of the renowned Homer.

I’ll fly slowly, slowly, hovering lazily.

And thus, basking in the enchantments of this world,

Skyward shall I soar and blossom.

A cloud my sister, the wind my brother.

The museum was really interesting and (despite all that I already know about the Holocaust)  I did learn a lot and enjoyed (well as much as you can enjoy a Holocaust museum) my visit there.