9/11 Memorial
The 9/11 Memorial itself is a piece of art. The 9/11 memorial is composed of two square separate memorials. The two memorials are established upon the remains of the two World Trade Center, so the length and width of the memorials are the same as those of the World Trade Centers. The names are carved through the black metal plates and presented by the negative space. The memorial itself is also created by the vacancy. The foundation of the building is removed and changed into a waterfall, and the waterfall is almost 10 meters underground. The use of vacancy can emphasize the feeling of something is missing. The negative space that creates the names shows that these people are forever gone from this world. The waterfalls emphasize the missing of the two buildings. The world will not be the same without these people who died in the accident, and there will always be something missing, something that cannot be filled in again. The use of vacancy is a clever way of expressing and passing this idea to the visitors.
The Holocaust Museum
The most important thing that I learned is the role religion and faith play in the Holocaust. I remember there is an exhibition of two scrolls, which have the Bible written on it. In the Holocaust, Jewish people would risk their lives protecting the scrolls as the guide mentioned. Their religion and belief are too important that people would sacrifice for it. The tallit is another item that was displayed multiple times. The tallit is a fringed garment worn by the Jewish, some are a scarf and some are clothes. On tallit’s four corners, there are four-knot fringes known as Tzitzit. This is another irreplaceable symbol of Jewish culture and religion. In the concentration camp and living under extreme circumstances, Jewish people still manage to hide and preserve their tallit so they can stay connected with their religion. Their faith and belief are extremely strong. During the Holocaust, Jewish people’s religion and belief supported them through the hopeless and desperate time. Instead of abandoning their culture, they choose to preserve and be proud of it.
I had watched plenty of Holocaust movies such as Life is Beautiful and Schindler’s List, and I had read plenty of articles about Auschwitz Concentration Camp, but there is still a lot of new information I haven’t even heard of. This tour at the Holocaust museum allowed me to fill the knowledge of blind spots.
Rather than only talking about historical facts, the museum uses objects to tell vivid stories. The meaning of shoes, tallit makes the story intriguing and also powerful. The name of the museum is the Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. The reason the museum is called A Living Memorial is that without people’s awareness and remembrance of the tragedy, the history will very likely repeat itself. The memorial is not established for a certain generation of people. Instead, its goal is to let every future generation of people memorize the Holocaust and the tragedies that happened to the Jews throughout the present and the future.
I completely agree with the idea of “The Living Memorial”. Human civilization is constantly repeating the tragedy that happened in the past. People need to be constantly revising, and be aware of the past and only doing this, we will be sensitive to forebode, and be alerted. Not just my generation, but all generations from now on. This is the importance of learning about the Holocaust.
Come From Away Broadway Play
The play to portray the Newfoundland airport and village after 9/11. The play showed the incident through three different perspectives: one from the passengers’ perspective, one from the Newfoundland government, and one from the Newfoundland villagers. The message of the play is very distinct. It talks about the horrific impact of the war, and also the warmth of humanity during dark times. Through the three perspectives, the two messages are very clearly presented. I was able to see how the passengers react facing tensions, and how Newfoundland villagers tried their best to help the 7000 passengers.
I think presenting this incident through a musical play has more advantages than disadvantages. The musical side of the play very well to emphasize the emotion in different circumstances. The lively songs can bring out the joyful side of the people, while the slow songs push out the sadness. I remember when the woman said that her son died on 9/11, she sang a very slow and sad song, which works very well at portraying the emotional struggle. The other advantage of a musical play is that it is able to shrink a long period of time into a short play. The whole incident includes 5 days, and shrinking 5 days’ time into a 90 minutes play is not easy, but the play accomplished it very well and talked about a well-rounded story in a short amount of time.
The disadvantage of a musical is that some parts can be a little confusing. Because each actor/actress is acting three people at the same time, sometimes I messed up the characters which make the play discontinued. But all in all, this is a really good play, and I think it is much better than The Band’s Visit we watched last year.
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