Running head: The El Paso Holocaust Museum

The El Paso Holocaust Museum

Sarah Loveless
Isis Ruiz-Hurtado
Arlene Herrera
RWS 1301

The El Paso Holocaust Museum

The El Paso Holocaust Museum is a center that is solely dedicated to

the history of the Holocaust. The Holocaust was the mass murder of 6
million European Jews by the German Nazi Dictator in World War II. The Jews
were an inferior race and posed as a threat to Adolf Hitler, the Nazi leader. It
took place between 1933 and 1945, and it still continues to affect our lives
today. The El Paso Holocaust Museum website presents what the museum
has to offer and gives its viewers a glimpse into the Holocaust.
A total of 6 tabs are listed on the right hand corner of the website and
each provides information concerning the museum. These tabs are titled,
Home, Events, Gallery, Local Survivors, About Us, and Educators. The
homepage introduces pictures and then goes on to welcome the viewer to its
website. It then advertises its featured event, providing details, and times; it
also presents its featured survivor testimony, which includes a video
interview. The homepage also informs the viewer of the business hours,
location, admission price, and contact information. There are also links at the
bottom of the page that allow the clients to set up group tours, request a
curriculum trunk, and speaker. The homepage is used to catch the attention
of its audience and to make information available.
The events tab includes summaries of the current events taking place
at the museum. Such as the Educators Conference, which offers
scholarships, and a tasting titled Bourbon and Bites. The museum is
presently hosting 4 events, all which promote and benefit the business. This

The El Paso Holocaust Museum

section contains information, whilst, the Gallery information is focused of

images of the center. Multiple photographs are listed in this tab, each telling
its own unique story. However, the Local Survivor tab offers the actually story
of survivors that made El Paso their homes. The website presents its
information in an organized and consistent form. When we clicked the links
of the survivors, a short version of their story is exhibited, as well as videos
of their interviews. There are over 15 local survivor stories listed in this
segment.
The next section, About Us, includes a picture of the El Paso Holocaust
Museum and a short description of what it has to offer. Educators, provides a
brief list of tours that the observer can request. The process of becoming a
member is explained in a piece titled, Membership, here it explains what
being a member consists of and the amount it cost. The El Paso Holocaust
Museum and Study Center webpage strongly appeals to logos, because it is
consistent in its format and organization. Each part of the website informs its
viewer very well, its easy to navigate, and uses citations and quotes from
survivors.
We can confirm the credibility and trustworthiness of the cite are
established; starting with the support they receive from the local authorities
and other non-profit organizations. Some of their benefactors include the
City of El Pasos Museums and Cultural Affairs Department (which is
government based), the Jewish Federation of El Paso, the Robert and Evelyn

The El Paso Holocaust Museum

Mckee Foundation, and the Shiloff Family Foundation (which are non-profit).
Any other money received by the El Paso Holocaust Museum is given by
membership dues, donations and/ or grants.
Also under the Contact Us page we can find the names of the
Museums Board of Directors. It is formed by a president, a vice president, a
secretary, a treasurer, a past- president, and another fifteen members. If we
wish to contact any of them, the website gives us the phone number of the
museum, as well as their address. The office hours can also be found either
on this page or at the bottom of all the pages.
As we mentioned before the website has an Events page where events
happening at the Museum can be found. This information tells us that the
website is not only being constantly revised, but updated as well. Also, when
we click on any of the featured events they list, the website will take us to
another website where we can find more information about the event,
ratifying that the external links on the site do work.
The website was created by Gem Creative Group, a Texas based
graphic design company with more than 10 years in the business. However,
it is fully managed by the staff of the museum. We went through all the
pages in the website and there are no grammatical errors, nor historical
mistakes which tells us that the volunteers are educated and informed

The El Paso Holocaust Museum

people. Also on the Educators page are various links to other Holocaust
related websites that the Gem Creative Group used to create the website;
from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to the Anti- Defamation
League.
The audience can see that there are no bright colors used on the
website. The Holocaust itself is a tragedy as well as something disturbing,
and the use of colors such as black and brown (symbolizing seriousness and
death) is a good way to show the viewers it wasnt a happy time for the Jews.
By also having no sound on the website, it can show the viewers its
something serious and real.
The first picture someone sees when they go into the website is a
picture of the train where they use to put the Jews and send them to a camp.
There are other pictures that show around the museum, so visitors can see
and get an idea of how it looks like. Even though there are good images of
the place, they dont have any description and the audience might have a
problem knowing what is going on.
Scrolling down the home page it includes anecdotes of the survivors
testimonies as well as a brief history of them. It also shows videos of a
woman that explains how she felt and what she went through in the camp.
By watching the videos, it appeals to the audience in a sense of compassion.
The viewers can watch the videos and see for themselves everything the
Jews were going through and how they got tricked into being sent to the

The El Paso Holocaust Museum

camps. They can also start valuing what they have now after seeing all those
people losing their lives and family.
Emotional appeals dont really show on the website because they dont
show any horrifying images of the Jews. By looking at the images included on
the website it cant really have an impact in someones life while the only
thing that can impact a persons life could be the videos of the testimonies
that survived the Holocaust. The only emotional language used in the
website is the testimonies and the picture in the homepage of the cart where
they would put the Jews.
As a group we came to the decision that the website is persuasive. From the colors to the
way the subpages are design we can say it appeals to logos, ethos, and pathos. Information about
the El Paso Holocaust Museum is easy to find, and easy to navigate through. Anyone who
navigates the website will feel empathy and compassion towards the survivors of the Holocaust
and with no doubt will want to at least visit the museum.

The El Paso Holocaust Museum

References
El Paso Holocaust Museum / http://www.elpasoholocaustmuseum.org/