Mr Reese Period 2 Holocaust Memorial Reflection (Luka Polese)

On January 19, 2016, Mr. Reese’s class and I visited the Miami Beach Holocaust Memorial for a field trip. This was truly an amazing experience. I thought I knew a whole lot about the Holocaust before this trip but turns out there was more to know. When we first arrived, the first thing I saw was the huge hand going high up in the sky. There was also a statue of a mother and her two children, they were in great fear. Behind the statue was an Anne Frank quote, this quote read “In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.” A moment after a tour guide showed up who showed us around. The tour guide walked us around , and gave us information as we walked by the walls with engraving on them. It was a curved wall with a walkway which I thought was nicely done. The walls had engravings of different pictures through the years showing the events that occurred before and during the Holocaust. The guide also brought out a tablet that played a video that gave some extra information on the walls that we were walking by. The part that had the biggest impact on me was when we followed the guide into this dome like shape area and it had a tunnel with a child signing a song. The tunnel led towards the tall hand. When we reached the hand, you would walk pass this girl, lying on the floor, reaching for help. After that I noticed all the names of people on the wall. Then I walked pass multiple statues with these facial expressions that made me feel like it was real. The work done with these statues were amazing. Then I saw the hand with all the people, climbing up the hand as if they were reaching for something good. Hope. After we finished things off with the guide we walked into this mini-theater, and watched this movie about the holocaust. The movie had survivors that spoke at the Miami Beach Holocaust Memorial which I thought was really cool. I really like how everything was set up, they did a great job with everything. I left knowing a few new interesting facts such’s as what a ghetto was and that 3,000,000 Jews were killed in Poland. I had a wonderful time at the Miami Beach Holocaust Memorial and surely would love to go again!