European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 13, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Apo Ordinary museum human stories of the holocaust by Robert m. Andrews associated press pots and pans a Young girls cloth Belt fading snapshots a Box of shoes. The Ordinary stuff of Ordinary Peoples lives they assume a horrifying significance in the archives of the new holocaust museum being built near the National mall in Washington. These simple objects Are made extraordinary by the awful events that gave them meaning. This is no Ordinary museum either. Chartered by Congress in 1980, its purpose is not to celebrate the triumphs of Western civilization but to Shine a glaring uncomfortable Light on one of its darkest moments the nazi Slaughter of 6 million jews and untold millions of gypsies homosexuals physically handicapped and other Quot undesirables Quot during would War ii. Although there Are holocaust museums in los Angeles and Detroit and one under construction in new York Washington a will be the Only National holocaust museum in the United states. When completed it also will be the largest in the world surpassing the had Washem National holocaust Center on mount Herzl in Jerusalem. A most museums like the National gallery of Art begin with a valuable collection that requires a building to House it a says holocaust museum spokesman Sam Eskenazi. Quot our museum is being built because it has a Story to Tell and we re collecting Artita cts to Tell that  in the past 18 months As Cement was poured for the museum s foundations archivists have been deluged with More than 10,000 artefacts donated by holocaust survivors and their children or obtained through negotiations with authorities in East Germany Poland Czechoslovakia and other Eastern european countries. The smaller objects include diaries sketches real or forged identity papers. Star of David clothing patches striped inmate uniforms coins and Stamps used in jewish ghettos Clandestine sketches of life in concentration Camps and secret coded messages exchanged by prisoners. These items might be considered commonplace a ephemera Quot by other museums but holocaust museum curator Susan Morgenstein invented the term Quot survivor objects Quot to signify their value As Quot hard and fast documentation of a fragmentary period in  each has been catalogued and stored in Gray acid free boxes in the climate controlled rooms of a warehouse whose location is kept secret for Security reasons. Some will be chosen for display in the permanent exhibition when the United states holocaust memorial museum opens in april 1993. Quot they have a special Power to Tell the human stories of the holocaust Quot Morgenstein says. Quot each of them like the survivors themselves has a Story to  Ruth Meyerowitz was 13 when her family was deported from Frankfurt West Germany to Auschwitz Birkenas in april 1943. Separated from her father and brother she and her Mother lived in a Barracks near the crematoria where More than 2 million people a mostly jews a were killed. One Day As she sorted through a Mound of belongings confiscated from new prisoners Ruth retrieved a Blue Belt appliqued with colourful Flora shaped Felt cutouts a obviously the works of a Young girl probably from somewhere in Eastern  risking a beating for violating Camp regulations Ruth wore the forbidden piece of finery cinched at the Waist of her Long uniform skirt to keep it from dragging in the mud. As Ruth lost weight and the Belt got looser she tried to convince her worried Mother that the Belt was magical. Quot i explained that in a not getting thinner but the Belt is getting longer Quot says Meyerowitz who now lives in West Orange . Officiate peer inside a Mode of a Tower woe lined with photos of 1,500jewish men women and children that wit be displayed Over visitors a they walk through the . National holocaust museum in Washington . William Luksenburg of Silver Spring md., donated the tattered striped Woolen jacket that he wore in the Flos Senberg concentration Camp. It had been hanging in the Back of his closet for 40 years. Quot ten to 20 years from now there won t be any survivors left to Tell the stories Quot Luksenburg says. Quot my jacket is evidence that will speak to future generations Quot among other items the museum has acquired a a Box of brushes a hairbrushes toothbrushes a seized from Auschwitz inmates and 2,000 pairs of children a shoes and empty canisters of by Kiona Poison Gas from the Maidanek killing Center. 0 a 27-foot freight car that once shuttled 1q0 jews at a time from the Warsaw ghetto to Treblinka along with a Section of the tracks it Rode into the death Camp. The former cattle car is housed in a warehouse somewhere in North Carolina where conservators Are stripping paint to find the original wartime layer of Reddish Brown Complete with markings and Graffiti. A a tourist class ticket on the luxury liner St. Louis which carried 936 passengers a most of them jews with american visas on an ill fated cruise from Germany to Cuba where they planned to wait their turn for entry into the United states. They were turned Back at Havana because United states immigration authorities refused the desperate jews entry. Eventually they were forced to return to Europe and most died in nazi extermination Camps. The ticket Holder Moritz Schoenberger was one of the few on Board to survive the War. A a crushed baby doll Carriage some bricks Glass fragments and rubble from the Warsaw ghetto the largest ghetto in nazi Europe until it was demolished in 1943. Also excavated and shipped to the museum were 2,000 Square feet of cobblestones once trod by the ghetto s doomed jewish inhabitants. A the �?o02,�?T�?T the Only surviving Motorboat used in a secret danish Rescue operation to ferry 1,400 jews and resistance fighters from nazi occupied Denmark to safety in neighbouring Sweden. A a partially burned nazi Flag and some 8mm color movie footage shot from the Stone ramparts of Mau Hausen a notoriously harsh is concentration Camp in Austria by an american Liberator in 1945, army sgt. Ray Buch. Associate curators Charlotte Hebebrand and Jacek Nowakowski have spent the past year scouring Eastern Europe with a shopping list of prize artefacts. They will make their first trip to the soviet Union soon to search for relics of the nazi massacre of 17,000 to 30,000 jews at Babi Yar a ditch outside Minsk in 1941 despite their Best efforts some objects a like their jewish owners a May have perished without a Trace in the holocaust Nowakowski says he despairs of Ever finding a pedicab the pedal operated taxi that once was commonplace in the Warsaw ghetto the five Story museum designed by architect James i. Freed a partner of . Pei and himself a child refugee from nazi Germany is being built on 1.9 acres donated by the government and is administered by a Federal Agency with a $2 million annual budget the museum site is within View of the Washington Monument and the Jefferson memorial. Construction is being financed by private contributions. So far $77-million has been raised More than half the $147 million goal for building and endowing the museum. Freed s design hints of the ghetto and death Camps by incorporating Brick Walls exposed steel beams and trusses Iron Gates and railings boarded up windows and Light seeping through the cracks at night. A it glows at night a says Eskenazi. A there s something mysterious something unsettling about the building. It was not designed to be pretty. Quot the museum visitor also will be offered a passport sized identity card which when inserted into a computer will assign an actual holocaust victim Matching the visitors age and sex to serve As a silent companion through three exhibition floors. As the visitor progresses through the passage of time starting with Hitler s Rise to Power in 1933, his computer card will be updated periodically with information about what had happened to the holocaust companion. Friday july 13, 1990 the stars and stripes a a a Page 17