Exhibit Review: Remember the Children: Daniel's Story

In 1993, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum constructed an exhibition for children, who were too young to view the graphic permanent exhibit. Remember the Children: Daniel's Story, allows the museum to aim their mission statement to children. To do this, the museum gives the exhibit a voice that children can identify with-the voice of a child displayed through his diary, and viewed by visually experiencing the contrast of his changing environments as a result of persecution. Although the exhibit aims at teaching, aspects of its authenticity can be called into question, such as the Americanization of the story, which represents Daniel as more of an American than a German Jew. Additionally there is a skewed representation of events with the role of Americans in the war. Yet according to Crew and Sims in "Locating Authenticity," it's possible for an exhibit to be authentic even with misrepresentation, because the event is what is authentic (Crew and Sims 169). And yet it is clear that there are political implications in dealing with this exhibit because of questioning its authenticity. Clearly there is the exercise of power to Americanize the exhibit, which then overlooks some aspects of Jewish discrimination. And additionally there is the exercise of power to give Americans a flawless role in the exhibit, since the exhibit does not mention Americans did nothing to stop Hitler, and the exhibit even invents the fact that Americans liberated Auschwitz prisoners. Together the questionable authenticity and the political implications persuade children not to question American involvement in this tragedy.

Children are persuaded to identify with Daniel from the start of the exhibit. In the first room, Daniel's voice can be heard saying "have you ever been punished for something you didn't do? We were." After this initial bonding with Daniel, children proceed to explore Daniels house before Nazi persecution. The house is clearly Americanized, since the kitchen looks like a typical American kitchen, only with vintage appliances. Additionally when the children explore Daniel's room, they will find clothes that look like some of their own clothes, this is because they appear to be American made. Additionally there is a lack of religious items in the house. There are no prayer shawls, yarmulkes or menorahs, the only reason the child knows Daniel is Jewish is because Daniel mentions it. Everything in the house is identifiable to children because it is Americanized.

The Americanization of the exhibit was done at the discretion of curators. They chose to present the exhibit this way to enhance the educational experience for the young audiences. Kids might have had a harder time understanding the exhibit if it conformed to the genuine frame of 1930's Germany. And the museum clearly wanted children to identify as much as possible with Daniel, so that they could convey messages that persecution can happen to anyone, not just someone who was a German Jew. Even though the museum had the children's interests in mind while creating this exhibit, the question of its authenticity can be raised.

It can be argued that the context of the exhibit isn't authentic because the visual setup doesn't conform to the environment a German Jew would have lived in. However it can also be argued that by limiting the scope, for educational purposes, a better exhibit can be created. Thus it is at curator discretion to decide the elements that may be included or excluded in an exhibit (Crew and Sims 168). And while exclusion may result in the omission of important aspects of history, a limited exhibit truly is best especially when dealing with children because they can be easily confused. Thus if the museum wanted to get across the basic themes of the holocaust, it wouldn't matter that the house appeared American. Children won't understand the holocaust even if they walked through a real 1930's German house, they understand the basic themes by following the story of a child who was unfairly punished for no just reason. Thus the objects don't have to be authentic in the exhibit, because it is the event itself that is authentic (Crew and Sims 169).

Although even though it can be argued that the exhibit can remain authentic because the themes of the events are still conveyed, it can also be argued that aspects of the German Jewish community are overlooked, such as aspects of Jewish discrimination. Some discriminatory aspects are subtly detailed in the exhibit. Children can see and touch Daniels yellow star that he had to wear on his clothes at all time when out of his house. Children also see the Daniels identification card which has a large J stamped on it, for Jew. But these aspects of Jewish discrimination seem minor compared to what the majority went through. The exhibit clearly portrays a mild version of a Holocaust story. But through this mild version part of history is lost, and thus a large part of the persecution is left out. This politically implies that the discrimination was less than what it really was. And considering the museum is in memorial to the Holocaust, it seems disrespectful to have a children's exhibit that politically portrays an Americanized version of the story which leaves out the majority of Jewish discrimination, essentially rendering it not worthy to display to kids. Perhaps curators are aware of this political implication; however they choose to have the exhibit remain Americanized because they feel it is the best way to convey general themes to the audience. They also might feel that when the young audience is ready, they can view the main exhibition and see the various ways in which Jews were persecuted, which includes a model of a gas chamber. Some adults aren't even prepared to see the main exhibit, so it would appear that it is for the best for children to see as mild a holocaust story as possible.

However, this mild holocaust story also as another political implication, clearly derived from the exercise of power. Remember the Children: Daniel's Story, has a skewed representation of America's role during the Holocaust. The first indicator that demonstrates that the exhibit doesn't accurately portray the United States during this time period is the clear omission of American foreign policy doing nothing to help those persecuted under the Nazi regime. Clearly this would be a fact to omit because children might begin to question why no one did anything to stop this tragedy. Another skewed representation can be found in the historical fabrication at the end of the exhibit. A movie plays at the end of the exhibit, where Daniel says he and his father were concentration camp prisoners in Auschwitz. The historical fabrication is then created, because Daniel says that the Americans liberated the Auschwitz prisoners, which is historically inaccurate according to the main exhibit with has a section on how the Russians liberated concentration camps in Poland, Auschwitz being one of them. At first it may appear that this is an error, but this exhibit was carefully planned, so such an error that portrays Americans as heroes seems highly unlikely.

Since the exhibit misrepresents the role of the United States in the war, one can again question the authenticity of the exhibit. However, it can also be argued that maybe this representation was for a purpose, and maybe it wouldn't undermine the true authenticity in the events of the exhibit. This exhibit is dealing with children, and such a broad focus would confuse them. Thus sometimes it is better when curators omit certain aspects of history so that the audience can get a better sense of the events without too many interpretations (Crew and Sims 161). Perhaps then the curators felt that by introducing too many countries the children would get confused, so they continued to allow the child to identify with Daniel by having America be the one to rescue Daniel and his father. Although the fact that this misrepresentation benefits the United States by making them appear to be the good guys has political implications that will naturally persuade children.

Clearly there has been an exercise of power to misrepresent the role of Americans in the Holocaust. By not mentioning appeasement, and portraying them as Auschwitz liberators, power is being used to change the historical fact that the United States did not do all they could do to stop the Holocaust from happening. This has major political implications since it essentially not giving children the truth about what their country did during this event. Along with the many disregarded aspects of Jewish discrimination, the portrayal of America as the hero in this event is disrespectful to the people who died as a result of a genocide that the world ignored. I believe curators are aware of this political implication, and that is why they only allow this to be displayed in the children's exhibit. The main exhibition shows how the world ignored Jewish discrimination, and Hitler's "final solution." And although we are supposed to have confidence in museums that they will use discretion in exercising authority, it is unsettling that the curators would allow this to be displayed for children because it essentially persuades them not to question (Crew and Sims 163).

Remember the Children: Daniel's Story is an interesting exhibit with its questionable authenticity and political implications. The exercise of power is evident in the exhibit to many educated adults, however for the younger audiences it serves a purpose of promoting a general knowledge of the themes and events of the Holocaust. Thus the curators are allowed a greater exercise of power in Americanizing the exhibit and misrepresenting the role of the United States during the event, because it serves for a greater purpose of education a young audience. Thus in spite of the questions of authenticity and the exhibits political implications, it is clear that the exhibit does a fine job in allowing children to contemplate about the themes and events of the Holocaust. By the end of the exhibit, I witnessed three children sobbing as they wrote down their reactions on pieces of paper. Some of those reactions are displayed behind glass for all the children to see as they walk out of the exhibit. One of them states "Dear Daniel, your story is so touching it made me realize it was all real and could happen to me." It is reactions like that which affirm the exercise of power in the exhibits presentation was all for the best. The museum set it up to allow children to identify, and clearly they have. Thus although the exhibit can be argued against for aspects of authenticity and political implications, one cannot escape the fact that children who view this exhibit will understand that prejudice and intolerance are hurtful tools that no human should use against another.

Crew, Spencer R. and James E. Sims. "Locating Authenticity." Exhibiting Cultures. Ed. Ivan Karp and Steven D. Lavine. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1991. 159-175.

Remember the Children: Daniel's Story. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Washington, DC: Smithsonian. 1993.