Monday Moments - Dallas Holocaust Museum

 January 1st was spent enjoying nature - a walk at Chisholm Park.  Then the wind shifted and the new year decided to get cold. 

Thus, I chose an indoor activity for Sunday Jan 2nd. Expand the brain with a museum. I had been to the original Dallas Holocaust Museum many years ago. Now, they've moved, expanded, and added a whole section on Human Rights. 

The Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum is a must see. It's not "enjoyable" or "fun", but it is necessary. It's rather sobering, somber, and humbling to reflect on the killing of six million Jews. And then to move on and see that so much has NOT been learned. Pick any corner of the world and  ones own back yard - there are people not being treated with the dignity they deserve in some capacity. 

There's an emphasis on not being a bystander, but an upstander. Actually DO something to help human rights in the world.  Maybe 2022 can be a more positive turn in history?

Lots to think about and do. 

Virtual Author Talk - Esther Safran Foer

5/18/20 - I signed into a virtual author talk sponsored by the Dallas Museum of Art and the Dallas Holocaust Museum. The guest author, Esther Safran Foer, was born in a displaced persons camp. Only her mother and father had survived the Holocaust from her whole family.  Her memoir, I Want You to Know We're Still Here, is about growing up in the shadow of the Holocaust.

Her goal in writing this was the history and  to remember - whether happy or sad - but to have it on paper. She learned her father, in Ukraine, had a previous wife and daughter who were killed. Her mother in Poland, as Nazis arrived, grabbed her winter coat, socks, scissors (she could sew). And Esther writes that as a survivor, her mother always kept a ton of sugar, flour, and cereal in the pantry. The mother always wanted to be prepared for dire circumstances.

p. 100 - Esther realized she was the "hinge" between generations of the family - the link. She herself did not experience the Holocaust, and growing up a bit in the displaced camp was fine for a child - kids to play with,  food, etc.  Once out of the camp, Esther did see the toll the war took.Her mother was strong and survived. Her father committed suicide when Esther was eight.

Quite a story, and in hearing the author speak, she said she knew she had to become a writer and preserve the stories, put the memories down on paper for herself, for her sons, and for posterity.

I miss live events at the museums,  but the power of virtual viewing is better than nothing. I enjoyed hearing Esther Safran Foer speak. Her strength, humor, and family view of history was compelling.
It was worth an on-line ticket ($25.00) and I consider it a donation  to the arts. Helps keep my brain from becoming mush.