In Confidence: Holocaust History Told By Those Who Lived It is a new, multimedia installation that encourages visitors to engage with personal expressions of Holocaust experience. Correspondence, possessions, photographs, artworks, journals, testimonies—history has confided these to us. Through each we can listen, reflect, and respond. The installation is on view at the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust from September 16, 2018 to January 31, 2019.
Visitors will discover artifacts from the collections of the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, a special presentation of The Girl in the Diary (in partnership with the Galicia Jewish Museum), an introduction to the stunning work of acclaimed artist Mikhail Turovsky, and an encore presentation of the HBO film The Number on Great-Grandpa’s Arm.
In Confidence also features the museum premiere of The Last Goodbye—an immersive virtual reality testimony (produced by USC Shoah Foundation). In his final return to Majdanek, Holocaust survivor Pinchas Gutter tours the concentration camp where his parents and twin sister were murdered during World War II. As Pinchas recounts his experiences, you walk alongside him—seeing what he sees, hearing what he hears, and learning as he guides visitors through an account of his own history. The Last Goodbye represents unprecedented advances in storytelling through technology. (Reservations recommended for this 20-minute experience.)
This presentation of The Last Goodbye is its museum premiere, simultaneously debuted by the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, and The Florida Holocaust Museum. Through their strong partnership, visitors to Holocaust education institutions across the U.S. are discovering how “the technology of the future” can help us explore, study, and preserve evidence of the past.
“Evidence of personal experience is often what ‘gets through’ to Museum visitors—communicating historical content while allowing people to make human connections. From hidden journals written in the ghettos to artistic reflections to virtual reality, In Confidence gives people a range of opportunities to engage. Testimony is prominently featured. When a Holocaust survivor tells her story, she re-asserts the humanity and dignity that the Nazis attempted to destroy. It is an act of resistance.” (Museum President & CEO Michael S. Glickman)
As visitors walk through In Confidence, they will tour items across a range of formats. Some of the artifacts on display were produced during the horrors of World War II; others were created in its aftermath. Some of the individuals who created these objects did not anticipate an audience. They kept private records and sketches of their experiences, using pen and paper to insist on their perspectives. Others sought to deliberately preserve—and to teach—their stories for the benefit of future generations. Their artworks open a window onto annihilated worlds; their eyewitness accounts stand as evidence. In Confidence asks that we take responsibility for carrying these stories forward.
