In the sunshine, on a warm winter afternoon, understanding grows from a garden in Seminole County.

"It was created by local Holocaust survivors, who has lived most of their lives in this country, but who wanted to tell their neighbors, 'This is what happened to us when we were children,’” explains Mitch Bloomer.

The walls behind Bloomer in Maitland’s Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center offer reflection.

"We must stand up for and speak out aggressively on behalf of the civil and human rights of all of our neighbors,” Bloomer affirmed.  As the resource teacher at the center, he is an expert of the Holocaust.

“A time when a group of people called 'the Nazi’s’ lead by Adolf Hitler became the leader of Germany and they established as one of their core principals, the elimination of the Jewish people.”

Artifacts from the Holocaust and World War II at the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center include gowns and spoons of those imprisoned in concentration camps, relics of Hitler's regime, along with the faces of heroes who worked against ethnic cleansing. Ultimately, the stories of survivors in their own words are preserved here.

"We can't change what happened to them then, but we can change how they are remembered now,” Bloomer believes.

The center focuses on the rights of all people. In fact, a traveling exhibit uses editorial cartoons from Pulitzer Prize winning artist Herbert Block to honor the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"We make common cause with anyone who is willing to fight the forces of racism as they exist anywhere, even in the history of this country,” Bloomer said.

History that cannot be changed but lessons drawn, like the cartoons on display, are geared toward preserving the freedoms of each American through democracy, education and civil rights.

"You can see in one frame, what it may take an author pages to describe,” Bloomer concluded.

It’s that one frame, one moment, one action that can change the future by remembering the past and working towards a better tomorrow for all.

The center is open six days a week, Sunday through Friday afternoon. Admission is free.

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