Holocaust Museum adds Spanish audio guide

The Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust (LAMOTH) announced Aug. 30 that it now offers a comprehensive Spanish-language audio guide covering 15 hours of historical material on display in America’s oldest Holocaust museum.

Funded by a $15,000 grant from the city and supported by Mayor Eric Garcetti when he was a city councilman, the guide includes recordings from prominent local Latinos, including state Sen. Alex Padilla, who represents part of the San Fernando Valley, discussing African-American soldiers who liberated concentration camps and Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) board member Monica Garcia talking about Kristallnacht.

E. Randol Schoenberg, LAMOTH’s president and acting executive director, said, “Spanish is the most common foreign language request” at the museum. In addition to adding audio tours in Russian, Korean, Chinese and Japanese in the future, Schoenberg said he hopes to make LAMOTH part of the Common Core educational curriculum for LAUSD students.

State superintendent of public instruction Tom Torlakson, who attended the press conference announcing the guides, said that he would work with LAMOTH “to see how we can have the great collection of information and stories here — and truth here — shared with other students.”

Gabriella Karin, an 82-year-old Holocaust survivor from Czechoslovakia who is a docent at LAMOTH, said that she has given many tours to students from Los Angeles who speak little English. They have had to rely on their teacher translating for them — until now.

“It’s a wonderful tool now that we have a Spanish audio guide,” Karin said.