Entry 3: The field trip to the Dallas Holocaust Museum

On Wednesday February 12, 2014, all four of my American History II classes took a field trip to the Dallas Holocaust Museum. It was previously mentioned in my past newsletter and I felt it would be best explained in a blog than my next newsletter.  I had Mrs. Kacey Durban, who is the head of the English department to help supervised as we went to the museum and we left campus at 8:00 a.m.  We arrived at 8:30 A.M and we began our at the Core exhibit.

 The exhibit gives visitors a view of the Holocaust by focusing on one day during the Holocaust. This exhibit illustrates wartime heroism, Jewish resistance against all odds, and government and diplomatic indifference to the fate of Europe’s Jews. They show that the decision to do the right thing to stand up against the forces of brutality, hatred, and evil can be made under the worst conditions. They also demonstrate that the decision to stand by and do nothing can perpetuate human suffering and cost lives. The exhibit also highlights the first European box car brought to the US. This car was used to transport Jews to concentration or extermination camps.

We also go to experience traveling exhibition entitled The Color of Memory: Art by Two Daughters of the Holocaust. The exhibition consisted of the work of two artists, Julie Meetal and Veronique Jonas, whose paintings and sculptures embody the searing effect of the Holocaust on their families and on the Jews of Europe during World War II. Julie Meetal’s exhibition, Out of Ashes, is a series with eleven paintings, one large sculpture and three smaller pieces. The work directly reflects the Holocaust stories of her Hungarian parents and the larger fate of European Jews. Veronique Jonas’s series of twelve paintings, entitled The Color of Memory, poetically envisions the experience of her family and the Jewish community on the Greek island of Rhodes.

We finished the exhibit at 12:00 p.m. and that’s when we went to the conference hall to eat. The guest speaker was announced to be Mike Jacobs. Mike is from Poland, where he joined the resistance. His parents and siblings were all murdered at Treblinka. Mike was eventually sent to a work camp and then transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in August 1944. He survived marches to Mauthausen and Gussen II. Mike was liberated in May 1945.  After he gave his testimony we had lunch that was catered by Spaghetti Warehouse. The students asked question while we ate and we were privileged to learn more about Mike Jacobs.  We finished everything by 2:00 and we thanked Mr. Jacobs.

This field trip was a awakening to my students and on our way back to the school all they could talk about what they had just heard and witnessed while at the museum. I would like to at this time to thank the parents for letting this trip happen because this trip enhanced their learning in ways I couldn’t. I would also like the parents that meet with us because they were able to experience a form of education with their children. Third I would like to thank the Dallas Holocaust Museum for opening their museum to us and taking care of everything from the catering to making sure they could provide the best education for us. Finally I would like to thank Mr. Mike Jacobs for be our speaker and being open to us about everything.

In regards Mr. Vega