To enter the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center in Skokie, visitors first have to pass the entryway, where a mock-up of a freight train sits atop rickety wooden tracks, giving one a chilling glimpse of the train that transported prisoners of the Nazi regime to concentration camps.

Looking at the jarring image of that freight train car as it looms over you, it is impossible not to imagine the powerless feeling of waiting to board it toward an unknown future.

What began as the place to tell the story of the systematic persecution, deportation and murder of six million Jews during World War II, has now expanded to tell the stories of similar atrocities and genocides that have occurred all over the world from Rwanda to Armenia, Sudan to Bosnia Herzegovina.

This week, with the opening of IHMEC’s  newest exhibit, “Stories of Survival: Object-Image-Memory,” — an exhibit showcasing moving stories of Chicagoland survivors of the holocaust and other genocides told through personal belongings —  visitors have an opportunity to imagine what those anxious times might have been like through the eyes of a child. 

“When we see things of children who had to leave, those really make an impact,” said Jim Lommasson of Portland, Ore., an award-winning freelance photographer tasked with capturing images of the 60 objects showcased within the exhibit. “Being able to handle these objects that had survived this many decades and that mean so much to the families was overwhelming to me,” Lommasson said.

The objects functioned rather as a window into the lives of the people that had handled them, cared for them, smuggled them in some cases and, in total, made it possible for the objects to exist today. Survivors were asked to write the story of these pieces and their own plights atop Lommasson’s enlarged photos for the exhibit.

“When the participant writes their story and puts [these objects] into context, then we really understand them, and we do have a visceral response to these horrific stories that we do need to hear,” Lommasson said.

One such object, the complete Marklin Electric Train, belonged to Ralph Rehbock, a Holocaust survivor and former 27-year resident of Northbrook and vice president of the museum.

Rehbock was born in Gotha, Thuringia province, Germany in 1934, and recalls that his father had bought him the train set featured in the exhibit when he was just 3 years old.

“He wanted to be sure that when we got to America, his son, I, would have something to play with,” said Rehbock, who, as co-chairman of the museum’s speakers bureau, is charged with recounting his history to visitors. “I played with it, my sons played with it, the grandchildren played with it, and now I’ve donated it to the museum.”

As they fled Nazi Germany in 1938, Rehbock’s mother managed to bring his toy train to the U.S. Rehbock’s family was one of the last to make it safety out of Germany.  

Rehbock attended Northwestern University. He and his wife, Enid, a school teacher, had two sons and today have six grandchildren.

In Scouting for 75 years, today Rehbock is also Scout Master of Troup 30 in Lincolnshire, leading developmentally-disabled adults.

From the south side of Chicago, he moved to Highland Park and then Northbrook, where he has lived for the past 27 years.

The “Stories of Survival: Object-Image-Memory,” exhibit, open in Skokie until Jan. 13, 2019, will tour nationally with the hope of sharing the treasured artifacts for more to see.

“Beyond the expositions, there is a teaching function that the museum is sharing in terms of preserving these objects from the communities for the future,” said Cynthia Kirk, a marketing consultant with the exhibit. “This exhibit is the first time local survivors have told their stories through objects, image and memories written in their own words. “These communities and individuals are learning how to archive and preserve these objects.”

The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center has long been instrumental in insuring that stories of world atrocities are not forgotten.

On Jan. 1, 1990, with its members prompting, House Bill 3 passed in both the House and Senate making Illinois the first state in the U.S. to require the teaching of the Holocaust in all public elementary and high schools.

In 2005, IHMEC again played a key role in the expansion of the existing Mandate to include the study of other modern genocides.