Hillel visits Holocaust Museum

Trip part of remembrance week

Hillel, JMU's Jewish student organization, traveled to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., April 3 to visit the permanent exhibit about what the Nazi Party had done to the Jewish people.

"I wanted to take the trip to the museum so as to remind me of how important it is for me to celebrate my faith," freshman Erica Bennetch said. "Even though it is my second time going [to the museum], it was just as hard as the first time. I saw things that I hadn't seen before."

According to sophomore Mark Scialdone, Hillel membership chair, many of the students who went to the museum had already been, but had new experiences in their most recent visit. Now that the students were older, they could better appreciate the museum and understand exactly what happened to the people Adolf Hitler persecuted.

"The trip to Washington, D.C., to see the Holocaust Memorial Museum is part of the Holocaust Remembrance Week events sponsored by Hillel," said senior Evan Schwartz, member at-large. "I decided to plan this trip because I think that everyone on earth should go to this museum, and I wanted to provide an easy, affordable way for JMU students to do so."

The trip was $5 and covered the cost of a charter bus. Admission to the museum is free.

This is the first year Hillel has held a Holocaust Memorial Museum trip. "I also tried to run the event last year, but I had to cancel due to lack of attendance," Schwartz said. "This year's publicity efforts were obviously more successful. At one point, we had over 50 people signed up for this year's trip, but many had to cancel and we ended up with 35 people. I hope that we can run the event next year and bring even more people."

The students who went to the museum said they left with strong emotional feelings about what they had seen. "The most memorable, traumatic and shocking exhibit was looking at the models of the gas chambers and how they lured the detainees into the chambers," Bennetch said. "[Prisoners] were drawn into the chambers because the Nazis put up fake shower heads and posters encouraging cleanliness."

Schwartz said, "There is one permanent exhibition in the Holocaust [Memorial] Museum and one children's exhibit. All of the people that went on the trip went through the permanent exhibition, which consists of three floors describing each section of the Holocaust, including the Nazi [Party's] rise to power, concentration camp atrocities and the aftermath [of the war]."

Hillel also puts on other activities throughout the year. "Our activities range from small events such as bowling and Tasty Tuesdays — where every Tuesday we go to a different local restaurant — to larger events such as Holocaust Remembrance Week, which will begin April 19," Scialdone said.

Hillel students closed their trip to Washington, D.C., with a walk around the Mall, during which students reflected on their visit to the museum, sophomore Daniel Teweles said.