United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Post 1

"Never Again". Two words are all it takes to define the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's mission. As the years continue to go by, there are less and less Holocaust survivors still alive. Through documentation and preservation, the stories of the participants can be memorialized for many years to come. Along with the Soah Foundation and Yad Vashem in Israel, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has one of the largest archives of personal narratives and eyewitness accounts in the world. As an intern, it is my job to analyze the content from oral interviews given to those who either witnessed the atrocities or were involved themselves and then translate that information from the Russian language into English. My first two projects were to examine a group of accounts given by Latvian and Russian witnesses who had seen the deportation of Jews, had heard the mass executions, or had even seen the massive gravesites. I find it absolutely captivating that even after 70 plus years, there is still so much emotion when talking about the past. One of the interviewees shed tears recalling her father’s murder as though it was fresh in her mind. It makes me come to the realization that some wounds can never heal.  Although emotionally taxing, this project and the projects I will embark on during the semester will be well worth it. By taking these foreign interviews and allowing English speakers to get a glimpse of these experiences, I will play a small but integral part in the mission of “Never Again”.

UMD START program, post 1

Before I start, let me first explain what the UMD START program is for those who are not aware of it.  START stands for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism. It is basically a huge think tank sponsored by homeland security, with its main purpose being to help thwart terrorist activities through a variety of different research programs.  I am working on the Advanced Research program, which basically means that I will be working on many different projects throughout the semester, not just one project like the majority of the other interns.  I can not really go into much detail about what I am currently working on (I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement), but our project centers around the aviation industry. To tell you the truth, when we were first briefed on the project it startled me a bit, but I am sure that this will not be the first nor the last time this will happen over the semester. So far we have been given some pretty tedious, detail oriented tasks related to the final product that will be put out at the end of the year.  We are pouring over lines and lines of data and making sure that they match up with the tables that have been put together with that data.  Like I said, tedious, but I have learned a ton about the aviation industry and its various moving parts in the 20 hours that I have been there so far.  My intern supervisor, Dr. Ackerman, has given us some additional insight into what we will be involved in for the first half of the semester other than the aviation project.  One project we will be involved in conducting research for a large police agency, another will involve "red teaming" which will essentially be my team looking for way to get around certain security measures (once again, not sure I should go into to much detail in either case).  At this point I am really looking forward to what is coming down the pipe for this internship, when I first decided to go back to school to get my degree in History I never thought it would lead me to anything like this.  Just goes to show you that a degree in History can open many doors.  For those of you who might be interested, I'll post the link to the START web site.

http://www.start.umd.edu