Monday, April 8, 2013

Holocaust Rembrance Day, Fort Ontario, and Safe Haven Museum a place to visit!


With all of the hatred being spread daily on Facebook, via the airways, and beyond, I thought it was time to step back and review for a minute what hatred has wrought across the world.

Sunday April 7th through the evening of April 8th is Holocaust Remembrance Day.  It has a special message regardless of our faith … but because of our humanness as members of mankind.  We have celebrated the Emancipation Proclamation this year, and so we should take time to reflect on all oppression and all enslavement…faith based or otherwise… even including ignorance.

We receive daily messages on Facebook about hatred of gun control, abortion rights, Second Amendment rights… but none of it really brings home the story of mankind’s evil side.  That part of us that exudes hatred or extreme dislikes for anyone or anything that opposes our own view - whether it be religious or political.

We here in CNY seldom have an opportunity to revisit information on the Holocaust unless it is part of our family’s history, nor do we take the time to consider its implications in a way that perhaps could change how our children behave in adulthood.  We do however have a great resource if we wish to have a ‘hands-on” learning lesson… that resource is the Safe Haven Museum in Oswego.

The museum does not dwell on the horrors of the Holocaust…  though it is there, what it does is focus on is the USA and our response to the displacement of people as each of the WWII concentration camps were liberated by our troops.  The short 37-minute documentary actually allows children who lived through the Holocaust tell their story in a humanistic and sometimes humorous way…  they having been dropped from the horrors of war into a Displaced Person Camp at Fort Ontario.  It also gives us hope as they explain the kindness of the Oswego people and its children. 

I include here links that I hope you will follow to pieces I have written on the Safe Haven story, and a video of the museum from my History Stars Productions Company!


Video and story below!  

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