Location: The Museum of Tolerance is located at 9786 West Pico Boulevard, Los Angeles. The MOT has a companion museum in NYC.
Cost: $15.50/adult, $12.50/senior (62+), $11.50/youth (5-12) & college students (with ID), active military are free. Certain special exhibits cost extra.
Time: Open Sunday - Friday from 10:00 am - 5:00 pm. The museum closes at 3:30 on Fridays from November - March. Allow about 2-3 hours to explore the exhibits and take the tour.
Description: Visitors start out by walking down a ramp with pictures, personal data, and quotes by Holocaust survivors. At the bottom of the ramp, visitors can view several exhibits related to the Holocaust including maps, pictures, and some artifacts. There is also a station to receive a plastic card with the name and picture of a Holocaust victim. You can then place the card in a computer console and find out information regarding the victim (pre-Holocaust). At the end of the Holocaust tour, you can place your card in another console and get a "souvenir" printout with additional information regarding the victim including whether or not (s)he survived.
The Holocaust tour is an hour long multi-media presentation taking visitors through a series of events preceding World War II through Germany's surrender. The exhibits focus on how Hitler came to power and how the average German could passively watch as their neighbors were arrested and tortured in concentration camps. It examines the power of conditioning a populace to hate a racially or culturally different group by degrees through artful use of rhetoric and the media to tell them what they want to hear by promising them a brighter future. It also shows the various fates of the Jews who were the victims of those hate crimes.
The museum also hosts the "Tolerancenter" - a series of exhibits that explore intolerance and bullying both in the past and present. Exhibits include the Point of View Diner, the Millennium Machine, a video presentation on the U.S. Civil Rights movement, contemporary human rights violations around the world, etc.
Occasionally there are special temporary exhibits. We were able to see a powerful exhibit on Anne Frank. It led visitors through a timeline of her life using artifacts, pictures and narrated video (focusing on interviews with her cousin) to show what happened to her and her family both through their months of hiding and their ultimate discovery, arrest, and fate. One of my favorite parts of this exhibit was going through a replica hidden doorway (disguised by a bookcase) that leads into the "Secret Annex" where visitors watch a nine-minute film highlighting this two-year period of seclusion. The end of the exhibit had a virtual Chestnut Tree (in honor of the tree she could see through the window in the secret annex) where visitors could add their own leaf with their personal resolution on how they can make the world a better place.
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| Replica of hidden doorway to the Secret Annex |
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| From the Anne Frank collection |
Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)
Things You Should Know: - The museum often hosts discussions led by actual Holocaust survivors.
- Advance reservations are required for all tour groups of 20+ individuals. For reservations, call (310)772-7639.
- The Museum offers special age appropriate tours for school field trips.
- Although the exhibits aren't overly graphic in and of themselves, the themes are naturally disturbing. Parents should evaluate ahead of time whether or not their children are emotionally ready to be exposed to these themes. They should then be prepared to have serious discussions with their children to evaluate what they observed so that the experience is positive rather than negative.
- No food, drinks, gum, or backpacks are allowed in the museum.
Nearby: Paley Center for Media, Zimmer Children's Museum, Petersen Automotive Museum, Greystone Mansion, Hollywood Walk of Fame
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