My Daughter's Chilling Account of Years at Holocaust Museum

On Wednesday, as the fatal shooting at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. unfolded, I couldn't help recalling that my daughter, Jeni Mitchell, just out of college, worked at the museum during its start-up, in 1992, through its 1993 opening, and two years after that. I also remembered that she had told me, long ago, about some of the scary threats she and others received just for working there, and the extraordinary security measures (little publicized) that they had to take. Of course, I forgot most of the details.

Fortunately, moved and upset by the tragic attack by a racist, anti-Semite, she wrote me from London -- where she's getting her Ph.D. -- last night, reflecting on her experience at the museum back in the 1990s.

Here's some of what she sent along:

The entire time I worked there, we always expected something terrible to happen. I was very lucky it didn't while I was there -- but it wasn't for lack of trying. Our head of security was a former FBI guy and he said we would not believe the volume of threats.

While the museum was being built, we were told that neighboring buildings were enhancing their security and protection in anticipation that the Museum would be a target for violent extremists, possibly even blown up.

When we opened, each of us working there received a 'security kit.' This was to supplement our in-person briefings. The kit contained instructions on what to do in the case of a bombing, an evacuation, receiving a bomb threat, etc.

The kit also included a piece of paper stapled to a stick; the paper screamed in bold letters, 'I'M GETTING A BOMB THREAT!' The idea was that if I were to receive an actual bomb threat, I should keep the guy on the line, stand on my chair and wave this sign around frantically until someone noticed.

One time, I was talking to this very nice woman in NYC on the phone, when our evacuation alarm went off. It was right behind my desk so I gave a little scream. I was pretty sure it was a drill, so I shouted into the phone 'I'll have to call you back,' but I couldn't be heard over the noise.

Off we went for our evacuation drill. Half an hour later I returned to my desk and called the woman back. It turns out that in the interim, she had called everyone she knew in New York to tell them the holocaust museum had been blown up. Whoops.

I actually received death threats. Personally, addressed to me at my office. Written in cramped, sociopathic handwriting, pages and pages of nonsense. I turned them over to security and didn't worry about it (who would bother to kill the schedule coordinator?) but it was chilling.

Also: Long before 9/11 we were well-versed in the procedures for unattended items. Several times we had to evacuate the main exhibit when lone bags were found (although thankfully they were false alarms). But I always felt that the people in the cloak room had the most worrisome job in the building.

A couple months ago, when there was that big controversy over the Department of Homeland Security report on potential right-wing terrorism, I could NOT believe that it was somehow controversial. Working at the Holocaust Museum in the first years of the Clinton administration was like having a front-row seat to right-wing hate groups. They are a peculiar American pathology, and they are not going anywhere.

I am really just heartbroken that after all these years, such terrible violence happened at a place dedicated to peaceful coexistence, nonviolence, mutual understanding, etc. And I am furious that an octogenarian nutcase can kill an innocent person.

Why do people keep working at places that are under threat? Because they're so important, and because we love working there. I never met a person who went through the whole museum who wasn't deeply, deeply affected by it. That makes all the craziness worthwhile.

Yes, there were people who hated us. They might act upon it; but what can you do? Run away? No. A small number of people wished us ill. A huge number of people were enduringly affected by their visit. There was no contest.

My co-workers there were immensely talented, intelligent, funny, brave and audacious. Many of them still work there, and I can only imagine what they are going through right now. Do they still think it's worth the risk to work there? I'm going to guess the answer is yes.

I never knew Stephen Johns, but he sounds like many of the security officers I knew then - friendly, helpful, always alert but unfailingly polite. I can't help but think that when he saw that old man coming toward the door, he thought: Here's a survivor, or a veteran, someone to be treated with special respect.

Anyway, sorry to ramble, I'm just pretty upset about this, and feeling mournful that the price to be paid for an Obama presidency seems to be an epidemic of well-armed lunatics."

To visit Jeni Mitchell's blog, the Crime-Conflict Nexus, go via this link.

Greg Mitchell's latest book is "Why Obama Won." He is editor of Editor & Publisher. Email: [e-mail]

Comments

[tailgateshirts]

So sad, but not shocking that this is the case. When educated people are always making jew jokes, it trickles down and once youre at the bottom, they are raving lunatics.

The same way that money goes, super rich, trickles down, and dirt poor at the bottom

[fairywhatnot]

... And to think that we let someone like Sarah Palin keep on spouting her hatred, and inciting riots ("it is time to rise up." ...

[robotfog]

I read she did that this morning on a talk show.

[willh101]

I couldn't agree more, Jeni. Thank you for sharing.

[KMAz]

Nevef Forget.

This is the exact reason that those who were victims of the executions and camps and murders of the second world war, whether Jew or Gypsy or Slovac or Russian or Catholic nun, must always be remembered. There are always those who because of their hate will use violence against others they hate and we must always be on guard and defensive.

There is no justification for their actions, no reason to be understanding. Those who would use hate to spread their manifestos of any nature are a danger to us all.

[Postroad]

Clearly then what is needed is front door searching. And then bullet proof vests for security people. And a cam snapping every single person coming in and leaving..and that at every building in DC.

[grayforester]

If a guy wants to come in and die at the hands of security guards your plan will be no help at all.

[SENCvoter]

When you burn a pile of debris, it's always the rats and cockroaches that crawl out first. When you clean house, you sanitize, you disinfect, and it's the same story. We are cleaning this big house. The crazies, rats, and cockroaches and all, are coming out. Hopefully, at the end of this symbolic cleaning/burning, we will have a clean house.

[Garioch]

I understand the sentiment but that particular wording and imagery in a thread touching upon the Holocaust is seriously disturbing.

[chaya]

But...but...there are no right-wing extremists, just good, patriotic Americans who are against baby-killing, the gay agenda, and losing their guns. Right? And Obama is slandering them in an effort to bring about a socialist nation. Right? The DHS report was all about the GOP. Right? Right?

I'm not upset at the GOP. I expect this kind of irresponsible, treasonous, self-interested idiocy from them. I'm upset at the Obama administration for--as usual--caving to pressure from them on any kinds of social or human rights issues.

[MHusseinH]

no kidding. how many elections do we have to win before democratic politicians grow a spine?

[OldSchoolLiberal]

Is there a memorial fund for Mr. John's family?

[Mikeatle]

ditto. I'll contribute.

[rubinoff]

me....three :)

[Deparis]

Yes there's one, through the American Jewish Community. Contact them at [phone] and make your generous contribution

[JEdgarH]

What worries me is the Republicans somehow seem to 'coddle' these crazies because they're right wing. I found the following part she wrote chilling, I didn't realize the report on right wing terrorism had to be recalled. How could the Obama administrative cave in to that kind of pressure, so now we're only allowed to go after left wing home grown eco/fauna terrorists? Did they forget about Timothy McVeigh?

"A couple months ago, when there was that big controversy over the Department of Homeland Security report on potential right-wing terrorism, I could NOT believe that it had to be recalled, that it was somehow controversial. Working at the Holocaust Museum in the first years of the Clinton administration was like having a front-row seat to right-wing hate groups. They are a peculiar American pathology, and they are not going anywhere."

[ProudNeoCon]

The controversy was about our army veterants being single out as a security threat. Not Nazis and KKK

[BlackWidowPilot]

The shooter was a veteran, and rightwing extremist groups both advocate their members join the Armed Forces to gain combat skills, and actively try and recruit people within the Armed Forces as well.

This is simply a fact that has been documented to death, and the GOP's trying to twist the report's content to suit their twisted, intellectually and morally bankrupt political agenda is simply S.O.P. for "the party of conservative Christian family values:"

http://www.republicanoffenders.com

Our veterans are not the security threat in and of themselves - quite the opposite IMHO. It is those white supremacists and fellow travelers who have also managed to acquire experience in the military that are a definite security threat, as surely as Timothey McVeigh or Ted Kazinski, or anyone else who acquires the knowledge of delivering death on a mass scale, veteran or otherwise.

If you do not see them as such, then go ask the family of Alan Berg whether or not such as the Holocaust Museum shooter are a very real threat to the lives of our fellow Americans.

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[Bryant Turnage]

Not entirely. That was one spin on it by the right, although that wasn't the point of the report. The portion of the report on veterans was that those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and dealing with PTSD or other emotional issues, if coupled with a lack of support from their family, the chain of command, and inadequate medical facilities like Walter Reed, could be recruited by right-wing extremist groups.

That said, that was only part of it. The Republican figureheads chose to pounce on the report and claim that it was saying *all* conservatives, or anyone else who opposed or criticized Obama administration policies, were extremists. That is, of course, ridiculous, but the culture of victimization is one the Republicans are embracing wholeheartedly.

[JoePenn]

Ummm, those security measures and instructions and guidelines (notes and all) are the same ones at any Federal building, military installation, and Embassy for decades now.

[rubinoff]

what i fail to understand, why so many people want to deny that the holocaust happened....it Did and the hurt/memory continues.

[JoePenn]

That museum came before the WW II and Korean War memorials. And it's a Federal building, just like all Federal buildings (Smithsonian buildings are no different, security-posture-wise).

I'm only saying the daughter's comment that, "my goodness, you would not BELIEVE the security measures we had in place" means she didn't work in any other Federal location, obviously, 'cause those've been normal SOP for decades.

[Jayne Faire]

But the fact they have to be used in a museum is telling.

[Shirley Fisk]

6/12/09
10:45am
Alexandria, VA

Soon after the opening of the Holocaust Musem I took 3 of my children to see the exhibits but had to leave with my 2-year-old son because he was misbehaving, of course.
My daughter saw all of the exhibits with my older son while I took my baby home.
When the kids called me to be picked up they were crying because the phone booth across the street from the museum had been vandalized my nuts who had scrawled "Hitler was right" and drew several swastikas. The kids asked me, "Isn't it over?"

[Ohioan730]

LOL @ the typo. "vandalized my..."

All jokes aside, your post made me very sad. Black children, Jewish children and any other persecuted ethnic group knows exactly how your kids feel. The whole purpose of that kind of rhetoric is terrorist-ic in nature. Its to strike fear in us that the dark past still hovers over us when we would like for it to be forgotten.

People are so insensitive. They accuse minorities of "race cards" when they have no idea what it feels like to feel mentally terrorized this way. That energy should be applied at outrage towards people who threaten the security of people and make them feel alienated and afraid. Racism is the very definition of terrorism.

[ywcachieve]

Don't be blaming the Obama presidency for this. Put the blame where it lies, with the racist hatemongers.

[ladyv]

Nobody blames the Obama presidency for this, not even the people who are blaming the Obama presidency for this.

[rubinoff]

hear, hear

[rubinoff]

reply was to: ywcachieve

[JoePenn]

I agree with that --- what does an Obama administration have to do with this??

[mizplacement]

Amazing. Thanks for sharing the letter. I shouldn't still be amazed by the sociopathy out there, but I still am. RIP Mr. Johns.

[harriscrl3]

I heard on the news today that the security guard that got killed was an only child. Thats such a senseless tragedy his poor mother.

Carol

[TimRivers]

It is a senseless tragedy regardless of whether or not Officer Johns was an only child or one of many children in his family. The sense of loss is no less great no matter how many children or siblings you have.

[philistine]

"...I'm just pretty upset about this, and feeling mournful that the price to be paid for an Obama presidency seems to be an epidemic of well-armed lunatics."

Aren't we all.