"Recordar un nombre es rescatar una vida perdida en el olvido."
"To remember a name is to rescue a lost life from oblivion."
I am thankful to the fact that I am with a group willing to learn and explore difficult topics. The El Paso Holocaust Museum and Study Center was made by the Jewish community in El Paso to show the community why it is important to learn about the Holocaust. Back in January, I researched what Jewish institutions exist in El Paso and I came across the museum. I brought up the idea to the trip's advisers and spoke with the museum and the tour was organized. We arrived around 9:00a.m. and met our tour guide, Rick. He is such a knowledgeable man and he shared so much with us. I am certainly no expert on the Holocaust but I have studied it for a long time and I know a good bit about it.
The El Paso Holocaust Museum is a marvelous institution and I must be honest, it was much better than I originally expected. There were a few significant parts of the exhibit that sparked interest from me. There was one part of the museum where there were artifacts from Majdanek extermination camp. The one artifact that specifically stuck out to me were the two rusty shower heads.
How many people screamed and perished under those shower heads?
Another part of the museum that stuck out to me was the propaganda. They certainly were offensive but they also reflect how easy it is for false information to spread and influence discourse. We are seeing this issue today. It reveals how important a free and true press is and how we have to think critically about the news we get. Beware of the lies that get repeated again and again.
I hope that my friends who traveled with me learned something special from this museum.
Our tour guide, Rick, did not hold back on the stories he shared. He went into great detail about the torture that Jewish prisoners went through. At the end of the tour, I asked him why he went into such great detail. He told me it is how he brings some justice to the victims by making them more than just a number. By doing this, people remember what we are capable of.
Afterwards, we learned a little bit about Catholic Social Teaching through the director of the HOPE Institute, Dylan Corbett. He talked about exploring a religious approach to dealing with the issue of what is happening on the border. I think it helps to gather all these different perspectives for the analysis of what is occurring on the border. What I believe is that we need to reform what we are doing. I think it does not reflect our values. If our values have changed, then we should carve a nice poem off of the Statue of Liberty. It was a nice chat with Dylan and it is interesting to learn from liberal Catholics. Sometimes it seems they are often sidelined in the conversation. We then met with Christina Coronado who was representing Juntas Vamos. She talked about health issues and community involvement in Juarez. A lot of negative things are happening in Juarez - that is a fact. The hopeful optimist in me had to ask, "What is the good news coming out of Juarez?" Thankfully there is some good news coming out of the city and perception seems to be that it is slowly improving.
We concluded with a conversation with Sigrid Gonzalez. She studied accounting but almost never did accounting. She ended up working in politics by accident and I am very envious of that. It was amazing hearing how her experiences were used to help with immigration policy under the Obama Administration. She did not give us too much insight as per what it was like to work under Obama but it was inspirational hearing how she got quite far up because people needed her skills. What a cool way to serve our country. I guess I just have to do the work and "show up."
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