Moral Choices for the Future

All my life I have been learning from different experiences, but this one stood out. This year my 8th-grade class went to the LA Museum of Tolerance. We were taught by a man named Walter. He warned us of the things we would see, hear, and feel. Before we started, each person got a card with the name of a child who had either lived or died in the Holocaust. At the end of the day, we would find out whether they lived or died. As I was reading about the little girl on my card, my eyes immediately went to her birthday, January 27 which is just four days apart from mine and was just around seven years old when she was interned. He taught us about the Holocaust and the terrible things that humans can do to each other. As we walked through the museum the thing that stood out to me the most was when we walked through the simulated gates into the gas chamber. As we stood outside the gates, I started to get scared even though they weren't real. I wondered how people could even think of locking up another person just for their religion. Walter, our guide, taught us about our responsibility as the future generation, he told the reason we were there learning about our history. The reason we were there was to learn from past human mistakes and make a different choice in the future.  He wanted to make sure that nothing as terrible as the Holocaust happened again. By going to the Museum of Tolerance, not only did I learn more about the world’s history, but I learned more about moral choices. At the end of the tour, I was heartbroken to find out that the little girl I had on my card had died from starvation in Auschwitz.

“Let us not forget, after all, that there is always a moment when the moral choice is made. Often because of one story or one book or one person, we are able to make a different choice, a choice for humanity, for life.”  - Elie Wiesel. I don’t want another holocaust to happen. Never again do I want a little child to be locked up and forced to have a slow death for something they can’t control. Going to the Museum was what taught me more about moral choices. I will forever remember seeing the propaganda photos showing the Jews as rats, the gas chamber simulation, and the pictures of the dead bodies piled on top of each after being gassed to death. The moral choices in made in the past were not good, so for the future, I want to make moral choices that will help the people in the world not hurt them.

The Museum of Tolerance

Our tour guild, Walter, was around 70 years old. At first, he seemed like another old man volunteering just to fill the time, but the moment he started talking I knew I was wrong. The way he talked showed us how serious he was. He warned of the of the things we would experience, see, feel, he told us that each time he taught the subject, he felt like part of his heart was getting ripped out. 

Before we really started, each person got a card with the name of a child who had either lived or died in the holocaust. He told us that at the end of the day we would find out whether they lived or died. As I was reading about the little girl on my card, the first thing I noticed was her birthday, January 27 just four days apart from mine. The little girl was around 7 years old when the holocaust happened. In the museum, the thing that stood out to me the most was when we walked through the simulated gates into the gas chamber. As we stood outside the gates, I could feel my heart start to beat faster. Even though they weren't real, just seeing the barbed wire, the tunnels separating the weak from the strong, made me feel scared. On the other side of the tunnels was a simulated gas chamber. In there, we watched a video talking about the things that had happened to the men and woman, girls, and boys, young and old. We saw pictures of the piles of bodies, and men climbing on top of each other to try to escape. We were told of our responsibility as the future responsibility. In the end of the tour I found out that the girl on my card had not survived and had died from starvation in Auschwitz.

As the future generation, our responsibility is to learn from the mistakes in history, to make the future better. We have heard the story of the one of the last holocaust surviver. That makes us a witness. As Walter told us, being told the story of the Holocaust makes us a witness. The future generations need to make sure no one in the world is discriminated against. No one should be discriminated because of their gender, color, religion, or anything similar. That is the my responsibility as a witness and as part of the future generation.

 

What We Have Seen

From down below, we have a different perspective

We have seen lives saved and seen lives taken

We have ran through the deserts and the mountains

We have drowned in the mud and swam through water

Muddy and patched we strive to live, to survive

Just to alleviate their pain we will work for as long as we can

As we climb to victory, worn and bloodied we will stay

We will stay for years to come

Longer than the last soldier

We will stay for the next generation to find

We will be remembered for our contribution

We will be remembered as the confederate soldier's boots.