European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 4, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Simon Wiesenthal Cente tolerance the barbed wire Gates of Auschwitz Are recreated at the museum of tolerance. Los Angelos times by Amy Wallace los an gets times the huge Mari in a three piece suit seems Friendly enough As he welcomes you to the Simon Wiesenthal Center s museum of tolerance Here. He can Tell by looking at you that you re above average he says not prejudiced at All a his kind of people. Quot Why in t everybody open minded like us Quot them it re whose body is displayed on a 10-foot-tall stack of video monitors says warmly. Quot but of course we do have our limits. Like you re at the convenience store right and. The Guy behind the counter can t speak English. You re thinking for cod s Sake just learn the language will a Quot. But seriously the museum s official greeter adds with a Grin Quot i love foreign people we All Dot Quot founded to confront bigotry and illustrate the contemporary relevance of the holocaust the new museum which opened feb. 9, could easily have adopted a preachy tone. Instead the $50 million educational Complex a also called beit has Hoah or. Quot House of the holocaust Quot a is in your face irreverent. From its smarmy Joe Isuzu Tike greeter to its whisper Tunnel where visitors Are bombarded by racial ethnic and sexist epithets from its interactive exhibit on the los Angeles riots to its nearly life size replica of the Gates of Auschwitz the museum reaches out and grabs its visitors. Both in its subject and its style a not to mention its use of computer technology a people say it is a place like no other. Quot this is a Catalon of human incapacity to love. It s a min walk through a Max problem Quot said the Rev. Cecil Quot Chip Quot Murray pastor of the first african methodist episcopal Church in South Central los Angeles who added that he plans to Lead his congregation on Tours of the museum. Quot it should be required viewing for anyone who has a moral imperative that Pults them through  because ideas not artefacts form its Backbone the museum succeeds in using the example of the holocaust not merely As sorrowful documentation of the past but also As a prelude to the future a an inspiration for action. Quot instead of saying we be got a collection to show they be started from we be got people to change museums have not traditionally done that said Robert Sullivan associate director of the smithsonian institution s National museum of natural history who worked As a consultant on the project. Quot getting people to face reality without giving up Hope a that s the line that s walked so successfully  dozens of people including some of the world s Best known museum designers were involved in creating the place a a collaborative and sometimes contentious process that forced its participants to Wrangle with some of the most politically charged issues of our time. Often the museum s creators had to Chart a precarious path a Between provocative Ness and bad taste. Quot it was sort of like walking on eggs said Karl Katz a consultant to new York City s metropolitan museum of Art and a Leader of the design team. Particularly on an emotional subject such As the holocaust he said Quot you a. 6 stripes Magazine March 4, 1993