We expected today to be an emotional day and it was.  Our day was good, bad, stressful and poignant.  It was a day that hit us on many levels and took serious reflection to write about.  Today, we went to the Illinois Holocaust Museum.

Until a few weeks ago, we didn’t even know that Illinois had a Holocaust museum.  We were doing a google search to find new places to visit on cold days and stumbled upon it.  If you haven’t been there, you need to go.  Everyone needs to go.

The 65,000 square-foot, Skokie-based, museum was opened in 2009.  It pays tribute to the millions of Jewish people that lost their lives during the Holocaust.  It also educates the public on, “combating hate with education,” and tells the stories of those fortunate enough to survive.

At first glance, the museum is stark, imposing and intimidating.   It turns out this is purposeful.  The building is meant to reflect a journey from darkness to light and has two wings, one that represents each.  When you visit the museum, you enter on the dark side, where the architecture represents the descent into the atrocities of the Holocaust.  As you proceed through the museum, you move to the light side.  The side that represents the rescue and life of the survivors.  In the center of the building is a hinge that symbolizes “the rupture in humanity that occurred during the Holocaust”.  This is where we saw a German rail car that was used to transport Jews to the concentration camps.  If that doesn’t smack you upside the head, nothing will.  There is a lot more symbolism in the architecture of the building and we look forward to better appreciating it on our next visit.

The main feature of the museum is the Karkomi Holocaust Exhibition.  This winding display features 29 galleries that trace the history of the Holocaust.  Starting with life before the rise of Nazism, we progressed through the ghettos, deportations and concentration camps that were the unbelievable norm for Jews in Europe at the time.  Following that, we learned how the world finally woke up to the madness that was the Holocaust, the liberators that helped to end it and how the survivors struggled to return to “normal” life.  It was a draining and emotional journey, brought to life with photos, mementoes and artifacts from the time.  The museum itself does not recommend this exhibit for children under 12.

Leaving the exhibition, we had just enough time to meet Fritzie.  And, what an incredible meeting it was.  Fritzie Fritzhall is a survivor of the Holocaust who lives in Chicago.  She talks about her experiences and will answer just about any question.  We learned about how she was taken to Auschwitz, how her aunt (who was also there) helped her through her darkest nights and how she ultimately escaped during one of the “Death Marches” at the end of the war.  Fritzie was amazing.  She even told Theresa how she dealt with her anger and emotions after coming to Chicago.  The most incredible thing about Fritzie is that she is a hologram.

Fritzie is one of several survivors that have spent days in a Los Angeles film studio answering over 2,000 questions about their Holocaust experiences.  These interviews are digitized and cataloged and then transformed into a three-dimensional likeness of Fritzie that actually talks to the audience in the Survivor Stories Experience Theater.  We thought the Karkomi exhibit was emotional, but to hear Fritzie answering our questions, and seeing her tears as she did, put an exclamation point on our day.

The museum is a chronicle of the greatest human tragedy of all time.  Perhaps one that could have been prevented by a world with more compassion.  It is also a story of hope, perseverance and survival.  Most importantly, it is a lesson for all of us about what can never happen again.  Never Again.

After the draining experience, we were hungry, so we went to our Chinese standby, MingHin.