SL Field Trip: Holocaust Museum

This past Thursday I went on a  tour to the virtual version of the Holocaust Museum in Second Life. As I’ve had the chance to visit the real museum in Washington DC, and it was such a powerful experience, I was really curious to see what this virtual display was like. My experience at the museum was probably the reason why this virtual field trip in particular did not “move” me as much as it did to other participants in my group, as I guess no computer game effect can compare to walking through the Tower of Faces or visiting the reconstructed Auschwitz Barracks. That said, this place is an excellent opportunity for people who cannot afford to visit the real museum to learn more about what the Holocaust was and see for themselves at least a small part of it, and I can think of many places that I would love to visit in real life and now have the chance to visit on Second Life. What is more, the possibilities for learning experiences are endless…my head is spinning just of thinking about going on a field trip to Egypt!

The tour started at a recreation of the Kristallnacht of November 1938, and it was hosted by David Klevan, Education Manager for Technology and Distance Learning at USHMM, who did a fantastic job of walking us through each of the sections of the museum, and giving us not only background information but also advice on how to get the most out of our visit, by telling us where to go, which objects to touch, etc. I think without his guidance the tour would have not been as educational and interesting, especially because we could ask him questions about what we were seeing.

Two of the things that I liked the most about the visit were the effects that were included in the Synagogue as part of the narration and the visit to the hiding place which we couldn’t have found without our guide’s help. Below you can see pictures of both:

If you’re interested in visiting this place, you can teleport from here. For a list of online exhibits from the Holocaust Museum click here, and if you’d like to know what you can do to prevent genocide, please click here.