A pro-Hitler poster used as part of the Nazi propaganda display in “State of Deception,” a travelling exhibit from the U.S. Holocaust Museum that was at the Field Museum last year. Photo by Devin Belcher.

Editor’s Note: The following story was written by a student in our Urban Youth International Journalism Program in partnership with the New Memorial Baptize Church. Students participated in a field trip to see “State of Deception,” a traveling exhibit from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. The UYIJP is generously funded by the McCormick Foundation.

My experience at the Holocaust Exhibit “State of Deception: The Power of Nazi Propaganda” was educational and the information I learned was disturbing. The Field Museum hosted the exhibit in February 2014 and I knew it was important information, but I thought a majority of people knew about the events leading up to the Holocaust. I also thought with all the facts and information about the Holocaust being shared over the years, people would have a little sympathy for the victims and their families, especially after seeing videos, pictures, or hearing survivors tell their stories. This exhibit opened my eyes to knowledge that we haven’t learned in school yet. Adolf Hitler was responsible for an estimated 5.1–6.0 million Jews being killed. He used propaganda to convince German men, women, and youth that Jewish people were not as important as the German race. Hitler tricked the Jews into sending their children to the concentration camps where Jewish people were starved, killed, and enslaved. 

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Editor’s Note: The following story was written by a student in our Urban Youth International Journalism Program in partnership with the New Memorial Baptize Church. Students participated in a field trip to see “State of Deception,” a traveling exhibit from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. The UYIJP is generously funded by the McCormick Foundation.

My experience at the Field Museum was awesome. I learned about the Holocaust and the important role Hitler played in the history of killing over 6 million Jewish people. The Holocaust was influenced by various posters displaying propaganda (images and words that make people change their way of living). Hitler was the dictator of Germany during the years of the Holocaust. He used the posters and radio broadcasting to convince the German people to hate the Jews.

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A poster that was part of the U.S. Holocaust Museum exhibit “State of Deception: Nazi Propaganda and the Holocaust.”

Editor’s Note: The following story was written by a student in our Urban Youth International Journalism Program in partnership with the New Memorial Baptize Church. Students participated in a field trip to see “State of Deception,” a traveling exhibit from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. The UYIJP is generously funded by the McCormick Foundation.

My experience at the Field Museum viewing the Holocaust exhibit was interesting and learning-full. I learned a lot about the leader Adolf Hitler and how he was able to persuade people that what he did was right. Adolf Hitler used propaganda to persuade people. Some examples of propaganda were posters, letters and pictures. This was a huge part of the Holocaust.
The Holocaust itself was a movement basically. Nazi soldiers who were under the leadership of Adolf Hitler killed and tortured many Jews only because they were Jewish. Read more »

Editor’s Note: The following story was written by a student in our Urban Youth International Journalism Program in partnership with Paul Robeson High School in the Englewood neighborhood. Students participated in a field trip to see “State of Deception,” a traveling exhibit from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. The UYIJP is generously funded by the McCormick Foundation.

Many of my classmates don’t know about the Holocaust so I did some research and found some important facts such as Propaganda was used to convince Germans that Adolf Hitler was their perfect leader. Adolf Hitler convinced them to vote for him as dictator of Germany. Hitler made himself sound like a savior and a hero and encouraged “pure German” descendants to follow him. Hitler had plans to create a better world – but just for himself and his followers, which he did by starting with the Holocaust.
“The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators,” according to the U.S. Holocaust Museum web site. This lasted from December 1933 to June 1945 and it happened in the heart of Europe. The Germans believed that their race was somehow similar to those of gods and that they should run everything.  Dictionary.com states the word Holocaust is a Greek word origin meaning “sacrifice by fire.”

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Editor’s Note: The following story was written by a student in our Urban Youth International Journalism Program in partnership with Paul Robeson High School in the Englewood neighborhood. Students participated in a field trip to see “State of Deception,” a traveling exhibit from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. The UYIJP is generously funded by the McCormick Foundation.

There is an underlying problem that is not addressed in America. Racism is a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human groups are determined by cultural or individual achievements, usually involving the idea that one’s own race is superior and has the right to rule over others. In fact, a lot of people believe and try to make others believe that racism no longer exists. But situations such as the Holocaust and Civil Rights Movement show that racism has always been a part of society. Many people today live their lives oblivious to what is happening in the world around them and often try to convince themselves racism is not a problem in their world. Others know all about the racism but don’t realize that they themselves could possibly be discriminating against someone else’s human rights, at the same time going around saying how open minded they are.

One of the main issues with racism is that many people live in racist conditions without even seeing it. Often it’s in their school, workplace, community or even in their own homes. People often tell jokes with racist slurs and while we know not to laugh at the jokes about black people, it seems the jokes about other races such as Chinese and Hispanic are OK to laugh at. We tell ourselves that they are just jokes but to those who they are ridiculing, it can be offensive.

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