COLLEGE PARK, Fla. — With less than three weeks until International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27, one Edgewater High School student is hoping to spread an important message about what happens when hate goes unaddressed through a unique exhibit.

To say it is an immersive experience is probably an understatement.

Visitors can see firsthand what it felt like to step inside a replica of a World War II-era cattle car that was used to transport Jews to the concentration camps. 

The hope for the nonprofit group Hate Ends Now, which organized the exhibit, is that those visiting it leave empowered enough to combat hate and antisemitism when it is rampant.

What You Need To Know

  • Central Florida high school student raised $30,000 to shine a light on antisemitism through immersive cattle car experience

  • Adam Mendelsohn partnered with the Hate Ends Now organization to bring the Holocaust-era cattle car onto school grounds

  • The traveling exhibit features a 20-minute, 360-degree immersive video presentation of two Holocaust survivors and an artifact collection

  • Students and faculty have through Friday, Jan. 10 to visit the cattle car while it remains on Edgewater High School grounds  

In just a few months, senior Adam Mendelsohn will graduate from Edgewater High School.

But before receiving his cap and gown, he said he wanted to leave his mark by spreading an important message. 

“There is a rise in antisemitism, and there’s just an overall rise in hate. I mean, we are so politically divided as a country right now, I just thought that I had to make my impact, make my mark,” Mendelsohn said.

The senior raised over $30,000 to provide his classmates and faculty members with a unique immersive experience involving a replica of a Holocaust-era cattle car right on the school’s front lawn.

For a week, students and teachers can step inside the traveling exhibit to reflect on a dark period of history that Mendelsohn fears could repeat itself if unaddressed. The last day of the exhibit is Friday, Jan. 10.

“It seems so crazy, like this could never happen, but if you take media and you take posts from today and turn it to German and take the color away, it’s scary how similar it is to the 1940s and the rise of Naziism,” Mendelsohn said.

Hate Ends Now said it hopes to remind those who step into the cattle car — which used to cram hundreds of Jews into a singular car — of the dangers of antisemitism.

Holocaust cattle car exhibit at Edgewater High School (Spectrum News/Sasha Teman)

Last year brought record highs of the hate crimes following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, a rise in antisemitism that Holocaust survivor Ludwig Ziemba said feels all too familiar given the current state of the world. 

“Living in America, I’m not as afraid as if I was living in other countries and stuff like that, but we should all be fearful. I mean, you know none of us are safe,” Ziemba said.

Despite the hatred that he sees happening worldwide, Ziemba said, at the end of the day, love always prevails.

“Try to accept everybody. There’s nobody in this world that shouldn’t be accepted by somebody else, whether you’re Black, Hispanic, Russian, Polish, whatever it is. I know I grew up loving people, and I still love people,” he said.

The cattle car exhibit brings history to life through a 20-minute, 360-degree educational video presentation on the Holocaust featuring the stories of two survivors.

In addition to the exhibit, visitors can also look through the organization’s artifact collection, which included an original striped pajama set and examples of propaganda used during the time.