While the Skokie location is closed for renovations, the Illinois Holocaust Museum has opened an exhibit space in downtown Chicago, continuing its mission of sharing the stories and history of the Holocaust and transforming them into lessons about civil rights and genocide. International Holocaust Remembrance Day is a time to open our eyes and ears to the horrors experienced and inflicted during that period, and the museum’s special presentation of Experience360 does just that in a new and innovative way.
The Illinois Holocaust Museum was founded in 1981 in response to a proposed neo-Nazi march in Skokie in 1976. The entry corridor to the museum space is themed around this event. Holocaust survivors who had resettled in Skokie—at the time home to the largest per capita population of survivors outside of Israel—were not willing to run and hide. Accompanied by their neighbors, they organized a march of their own. The signs they carried now hang from the ceiling and line the walls, alongside newspaper clippings from the time. Legal battles followed over whether the neo-Nazi group’s hateful rhetoric was protected under the First Amendment, sparking ongoing debate. For those who survived what that rhetoric represented, and for those who understand history, this was never a matter for debate. The museum was founded to educate—and to explain why.
“The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated, so malignant, and so devastating, that civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored, because it cannot survive being repeated,” United States Chief Prosecutor Robert H. Jackson said at the Nuremberg Trails.
The Karkomi Family Foundation Gallery of The Holocaust & World War II shows how the persecution, dehumanization, discrimination, and intended genocide of the Jewish people became normalized across 20 countries in just 12 years. The exhibit traces the chilling evolution of anti-Semitism—from seemingly small acts, such as making it illegal for Jews to own pets, to the horrors of killing centers and concentration camps—all conveyed through first-hand accounts.
“Marion Deichman and her mother managed to escape to Paris, but as hatred for the Jews continued, even here, they were not truly safe. In the early hours of July 16, 1942, French police set out through the streets of German-occupied Paris carrying out arrest orders for scores of foreign Jewish men, women, and children. That morning, two police officers knocked on the door of Marion Deichman’s apartment and took her mother, Alice. She was just one of 13,000 rounded up in the largest French deportation of Jews during the Holocaust. It was an event that would change nine-year-old Marion’s life forever.”
Marion is one of four Holocaust survivors whose stories can be experienced through the special Experience360 virtual theater. Using VR headsets, visitors are immersed in the world of young Marion as she flees from the Nazis. The first scene places viewers in her family’s apartment in Luxembourg, where she lived with her mother before escaping to Paris as Hitler’s influence grew. Framed pictures on the walls of the one-room apartment shift into photographs from her childhood, juxtaposed with the flashing explosions of World War II.
The next scene unfolds in the back of a truck, cramped among shipping boxes and pieces of luggage. This moment captures when Marion and her mother were smuggled across the French border by a driver willing to help. The shadow of a Nazi border guard circles the truck on foot, barely peering inside with his flashlight as Marion and her mother, Alice, hold their breath. It is here that young Marion begins to grasp the reality of the situation—they are being hunted. Just in time, the voice of another driver distracts the guard, drawing his attention away before anything can happen.
After Alice was taken, Marion was relocated by the French Resistance to Normandy, where she stayed with a family. One scene takes place in the farmhouse where they lived. A radio announcement breaks through the quiet, reporting that American and British forces are storming Normandy. Later, warning pamphlets fall through the roof, confirming that liberation forces are indeed on their way. The sounds of war grow louder. Marion and the Parigny family retreat to the countryside as Normandy is nearly destroyed in the ensuing battle.
When Marion later returned to Paris and reunited with her grandmother and uncle, she learned that her mother was murdered in Auschwitz.
Throughout the VR film, Marion guides viewers through present-day Paris, showing the places where she once lived and hid from the Nazis, as well as a memorial honoring her mother and the thousands of other Jews in Paris who were murdered. Though only a child at the time, Marion continues to speak of the kindness and bravery of those who helped her survive.
“Anti-Semitism is a disease which has existed for centuries and it’s very hard to replicate because we Jews are a very peculiar invention and it’s quite difficult to explain who we actually are. But it’s completely stupid to talk about Jews as if they were a herd of people you can transfer to Mauritius or something. We are completely different people,” said Anita Lasker-Wallfisch.
Another unique exhibit is the holography theater, which features recorded interviews with Holocaust survivors. The experience feels as though a storyteller is present in the room, with interviews so in-depth that visitors can engage in what feels like a one-on-one conversation. Anita is one of the survivors who shares her story—being deported to Auschwitz and later Bergen-Belsen, before working as a translator for the British Army and eventually moving to the United Kingdom. She also eagerly shares her passion for the cello. In fact, her musicianship saved her life, as she was recruited into the camp orchestra, sparing her from the gas chamber.
Lastly, the museum features a special Stories of Survival gallery showcasing belongings from survivors not only of the Holocaust, but also of other instances of genocide around the world. These artifacts range from articles of clothing and toys to jewelry and even documentation that enabled individuals to flee. Written letters detailing their escapes and personal histories accompany the objects, adding powerful context to each story.
The Illinois Holocaust Museum is the second largest in the United States dedicated to remembering and educating people about this horrific time in human history.
