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Jan. 29th, 2011 09:03 pmAs part of my New Year's resolution I decided to explore/visit a new place in Houston once a month. This month I went to the Houston Holocaust Museum and Memorial.
When I got there my bag had to be search, which to me was a little unusual for a museum. The museum itself is rather small. One main exhibit which had a brief history of anti-semetism in Europe explaining how that laid the groundwork for the holocaust. Things like Jews not being allowed to hold public office, or being required to live in certain places. The exhibit slowly built up everything that led to the Final Solution. First how Germany suffered massive inflation and shortages after WWI which discredited the ruling party and enable the rise of Hitler and the nazis, who gave Germans a convenient target for their anger. It also explained how Jews were sloly stripped of their rights and persecuted. All in all building up to the Final Solution where Jews and other undesirables were shipped to various camps to be killed. I did like how they included information such as the others included within the Final Solution being homosexuals, and the Roma.
Other than the main exhibit, they had two art exhibits. One called Displaced Persons, featuring photographed taken to Jewish survivors, the other Fragile Fragments: Expressions of Memory featuring artwork created by 3 female artist working with Holocaust survivors and their memories.
Outside the museum had a German boxcar used to transport people to the camps as well as a Danish fishing boat used to smuggle Jews out of Denmark to Sweden. I wasn't able to get a close look as there was a school group(I assume as least from the school buses I could see) on tour and taking up the space.
All in all a throat-provoking place and worth the visit. Now to hunt down the video of the Auschwitz survivor dancing at the various concentration camps with his grandchildren.
When I got there my bag had to be search, which to me was a little unusual for a museum. The museum itself is rather small. One main exhibit which had a brief history of anti-semetism in Europe explaining how that laid the groundwork for the holocaust. Things like Jews not being allowed to hold public office, or being required to live in certain places. The exhibit slowly built up everything that led to the Final Solution. First how Germany suffered massive inflation and shortages after WWI which discredited the ruling party and enable the rise of Hitler and the nazis, who gave Germans a convenient target for their anger. It also explained how Jews were sloly stripped of their rights and persecuted. All in all building up to the Final Solution where Jews and other undesirables were shipped to various camps to be killed. I did like how they included information such as the others included within the Final Solution being homosexuals, and the Roma.
Other than the main exhibit, they had two art exhibits. One called Displaced Persons, featuring photographed taken to Jewish survivors, the other Fragile Fragments: Expressions of Memory featuring artwork created by 3 female artist working with Holocaust survivors and their memories.
Outside the museum had a German boxcar used to transport people to the camps as well as a Danish fishing boat used to smuggle Jews out of Denmark to Sweden. I wasn't able to get a close look as there was a school group(I assume as least from the school buses I could see) on tour and taking up the space.
All in all a throat-provoking place and worth the visit. Now to hunt down the video of the Auschwitz survivor dancing at the various concentration camps with his grandchildren.
