The Best for Last and All the Rest

Names of victims on the wall of the
Budapest Holocaust Memorial

As this experience comes to an end, I find that the Justice Studies program keeps packing the punches, down to the final seconds.  Today marked the beginning of the end: our last field studies trip.  A sad day in that of itself was concurrently on the day of one of our most emotional trips.  Today, we visited the Budapest Holocaust Memorial Center.  This memorial was an example of curatorial perfection.  Whoever designed the museum went out of their way to highlight the most valuable information showing the (non-chronological) steps towards deprivation for the Hungarian Jewry.  It was dark and the music matched the scenes well, the videos exceeded in providing emotional reaction, and the pictures on the walls were meaningful and complimented by concise descriptions. 

One of the first things we saw in the museum...
"march to deprivation"

I’m going to be unconventional and start this blog with something that our amazing tour guide talked about at the end of the experience.  She ended our tour by opening up the scope of her narrative.  In learning about the Holocaust we must not limit ourselves to learning about the Holocaust itself.  In looking at the grand scheme of things, we must see the danger in ideas.  Granted, most ideas and ideologies are not so extreme, but there is always potential for these dangerous ideologies to spread.  Looking back, it’s easy to say, “How did we let that happen?”  But as humans we are prone to being herded like sheep towards certain beliefs.  Even remaining neutral isn’t acceptable, it’s important to take a stand.  (This is something I thought was relevant, especially considering the people standing up for their beliefs in regards to the Occupy [insert name of city here] for the past couple months.)  Thinking about this, after moving through the museum and seeing how gradual and “organic” the deprivation of the rights of the Jews happened, I am not surprised that it was possible to instill such an ideology into people. 

Many of the pictures in the Memorial came
from the Auschwitz album - a series of pictures
taken by SS officers and found by an Auschwitz
survivor...More people should see these.

Walking through the Holocaust Memorial brought all of our studies from this semester to a head.  I recognize people and events from our Hungarian History and Hungarian Culture classes.  This is something I’m proud to be able to do.  Having been here, I’ve interacted with people who’ve clearly been impacted by the extremist regimes whose legacy lives on in Hungary.  When you see all the visual evidence, their point of view is frighteningly legitimate.  I will always be haunted by my visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau, which has since been a valuable experience for me to see how what I learned in Poland directly relates to the Hungarian experience.  In this Holocaust memorial, I saw many of the same images and videos that I’ve previously seen, but there was one video that was truly, truly horrific.  I think that more than anything, seeing the bodies of the victims—both alive and dead, and seeing the empty look in their eyes—will remain with me.  It’s something that has become an extremely personal experience since I’ve been over here.  It’s easy to separate yourself from things like this in America, because we are isolated and had not experienced this in first person. 

Beautiful and restored synagogue

This Holocaust memorial is not somewhere that really changed me, because I’ve seen so many Holocaust related things since I’ve been in Europe.  But it is a place that people should have the opportunity to go to.  To see an interpretation of the Holocaust through the eyes of a European nation is powerful, because there was no escaping World War II. 

Powerful and depressing though…which is why it is always refreshing to come to the end of the tour where museums try to make sense of it all and end on a more positive note.  Our tour took us into a synagogue that was completely restored after the war.  Only one picture had remained of the interior, and this picture was used to restore the dignity of the interior to its original state.  The results were beautiful.  To me, it really symbolizes the fact that there is hope after destruction. 

To bring this full circle, what an amazing last field studies trip.  It was the kind that made me take a step back and think about my whole time here.  I could not be more grateful for the opportunities, experiences, knowledge, and friends that I’ve been able to share the last couple months with.  This experience studying abroad has been incredible, and I know that I’m a different person for it.

Above is a video that Sarah posted on her most recent blog post.  It's pretty moving and does a really great job at summing up some of the things that I've seen.

Still,

Living and Learning.