International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2014

LOS ANGELES - Today, January 27, is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. If this is the first you are hearing of it, well, you probably are not alone. This is a rather new remembrance day as this day came about following a resolution after a special United Nations session held in 2005, which the United Nations General Assembly marked the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps and the end of the Holocaust. 

This otherwise came about following UN Resolution 60/7, which urges every U.N. member nation to honor the memory of Holocaust victims, and encourages the development of educational programs about Holocaust history to help prevent future acts of genocide.

Perhaps you have some new people in your life and they are at that age where they need to start understanding some not-so-pleasant moments in our history, or maybe you still need to figure out what this was all about (it is a lot for even the best of scholars to attempt to wrap their head around). Well, if you have a moment during the day, or perhaps sometime during the week, please go to the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust.

Aside from the unique aspect of the museum the L.A. Museum of the Holocaust is the oldest Holocaust museum in the United States, or so they claim. Whatever the case may be it is a very important place to visit as they have an impressive research center and library, and in 2010 the museum moved into a new building at Pan Pacific Park.

On the note of the library and research center, if you are searching for a family member, or curious if you had a family member if lost in this obscene tragedy, this museum is a wonderful resource to track down lost family members.  

Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust
100 S The Grove Drive (Across the street from The Grove at Pan Pacific Park between Beverly Boulevard and 3rd Street)
Los Angeles  90036
Dial (323) 651-3704  

Museum hours are:
Monday through Thursday: 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.
Friday: 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. 
Saturday and Sunday: 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.

Along these same lines another important place you should go to at some point, especially if you have never been, is the Museum of Tolerance, which is run in conjunction with the the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

There is a lot of injustice here in Southern California and in the world, and if you maybe want to try to help these are two good places to start.

On this day take a moment, please, to remember what happened then, and to remember what is still going on in the world today.

In Case You Missed It: Getting Lost in L.A. History Online

LOS ANGELES - If you are a native Angeleno, native Southern Californian, or just one of the many thousands of migrants to our fine land, chances are you want to know a little bit of history of this place you call home.

Places like the National History Museum of Los Angeles and even the Los Angeles Central Library are great places to start, but if you cannot make it out to the museum or library right away look no further than your computer.

Just go over to KCET.org and get lost in L.A. as a Subject with Nathan Masters. In association with University of Southern California Libraries, "L.A. as Subject is an association of more than 230 libraries, cultural institutions, official archives, and private collectors dedicated to preserving and telling the sometimes-hidden histories of the Los Angeles region."  

With the work of Mr. Masters you will find the answers as to why L.A. became a place of palm trees, to how and why Broadway obtained its name, and rediscovering some of L.A.'s lost railways. Nothing about L.A. and Southern California's past is too obscure or too odd.

Mr. Masters, by the way, is a writer specializing in Los Angeles history, and he serves as manager of academic events and programming communications for the USC Libraries.

We promise that once you click on one story at L.A. as a Subject you are going to end up clicking on several more stories, and suddenly you are going to find yourself spending an entire afternoon, or evening, or perhaps both, digging deeper into the sight.

This is a fantastic collection online, and we are lucky this is so readily available, and it is highly recommended you spend some time going through it exploring unique bits of L.A. and Southern California history.