On November 15th, Mrs. Lockhart’s fall semester Holocaust Studies class took a field trip to the El Paso Holocaust Museum.
Every class has the opportunity to attend the field trip, but this time there was a new addition to the museum with the USC Shoah Foundation’s Dimensions in Testimony exhibition.
This is a groundbreaking exhibition which brings testimonies of Holocaust survivors to life through new technology.
With this interactive experience, you have the ability to ask questions to a two-dimensional display of different Holocaust survivors, and receive your answer in just seconds.
The students had a chance to use their knowledge from the class and ask questions to a Holocaust survivor as if they were physically in the room with them.
After a guided tour learning about events from before, during, and after the Holocaust, the class walked into a separate room which had a blank screen surrounded by chairs.
The tour guide, Mary Lou Racha, first asked what survivor the class wanted to talk to and the class chose Eva Kor, a young twin who was experimented on in Auschwitz II-Birkenau.
Eva Kor answering the student’s questions. She answered each question as if she was physically there.
Eva appeared, and the students began to ask questions like “What was your life like before the war?”, “When did you first experience antisemitism?”, and “Can you explain an experiment the Natzi’s performed on you?”
A student asked Eva when she was liberated she responded within seconds and said “In January 1995, I remember they [her liberators] gave us chocolates, cookies, and hugs. That was my first taste of freedom.”
Senior Hailey Garcia said, “As I entered the El Paso Holocaust Museum & Study Center, I was deeply moved by the space, filled with information that expanded my understanding of the Holocaust.
One of the most impactful exhibits was ‘Dimensions in Testimony’ from the USC Shoah Foundation, where our class had the rare opportunity to interact with Holocaust survivor Eva Kor and hear her powerful story—an experience I wholeheartedly recommend.”
The El Paso Holocaust Museum is not certain until when the Dimensions in Testimony exhibition will be open, so this is a once in a lifetime experience that everyone in El Paso should take advantage of.
This exhibit gives people the rare chance to engage in conversations with survivors from the Holocaust.
Mrs Lockhart’s Holocaust Studies students received an opportunity of a lifetime getting to talk to Eva Schloss as if she was right there in front of them, gathering every student with her experience of the Holocaust.
This is an experience that these students will never forget.
