Inside what used to be a Bed, Bath and Beyond in Lincoln Park, a moving exhibit that takes patrons back to October 7,th 2023.
"I was a booking agent and on stage when it all started," recalls Noa Beer, who lives in Tel Aviv. "We were just dancing in nature in our country. We had no clue at 6:28am on October 7th. We had no clue what was coming."
"I was standing on the stage watching 3,800 people dancing their hearts out and the distance between that incredible moment and that beauty and the energy and what happened in the hours following is so devestating."
Beer remembers telling the producer to turn off the music and start evacuating people.
"Missile attacks aren't something out of the ordinary in Israel. It's something we see all the time unfortunately so no one had any idea anything else was coming." she shook her head.
She narrowly escaped the carnage to come.
"I drove up North and I was one of the first people to encounter terrorists that morning. About 650am I was already surrounded by terrorists on the road. I managed to rescue the DJ, and three other people from the road and drive out from the terrorist block. Unfortunately, no one survived on that stretch of road, everyone was killed around us. Everyone was murdered on that stretch of road. They were taking everyone down around me," she shook her head, "It's miraculous that I'm sitting in front of you on so many levels."
Beer would later learn 12 of her friends were killed or kidnapped. She now talks to others as part of the Nova Exhibition that takes visitors through the beauty and the tragedy of that day.
"It was talked about but very quickly the agenda moved toward what happened October 8th and forward. A lot of people forget this was a crime against humanity on every level."
The traveling exhibit documents the events of 10-7-2023 at the Nova Music Festival in Israel through testimonies, artifacts, re-creations and cell phone video in real time.
"The artifacts are moved from city to city in the most gentle way possible. We come into an empty warehouse and it becomes that day. The exhibit is built from the light from what our community was on October 6th and into the darkness, into the attack of that day. The artifacts that we see are natural artifacts collected from the field, everything, even in the smell, even the way you feel when you walk into the room, you can actually feel what we went through that day. The fact that this day was filmed from every angle, the fact that the terrorists wore body cams, the fact that the survivors and people we lost were filming during their escape, it's something that allows us to show the world, minute by minute, step by step what went on that day."
The space is curated with actual items left behind and staged like they were left when people ran for their lives. Tents, cellphones, shoes, coolers, blankets and burned cars. There is a lost and found full of shoes, backpacks and other belongings people left, the bar and stage at the festival are re created with items left as they were when the attack began. There are visible bullet holes in the actual porta potties on site.
"This is the lost and found, so some survivors have come here and have actually found some of the things that belonged to them that they left behind over the course of the exhibit's run throughout the different cities," said Caroline Nesbitt, Red Banyan Public Relations.
A hostage wall documents those who returned home safely and those whose remains were eventually returned to their loved ones. Three hostages have yet to be returned, dead or alive.
"This is the wall of the people who died at the Nova Music Festival and after. People have been leaving messages along this wall, "we will dance again', "bring them home', and it's been a really moving piece of this exhibition since it's been in Chicago," said Nesbitt said.
It’s been more than two years since Hamas terrorists killed and kidnapped hundreds of festival goers but the memory of the headlines and images remain fresh.
"My grandparents survived the Holocaust but they never talked about it. Mental health was pushed aside. I knew we needed to start speaking the moment this happened. As time goes by, there will be less and less Holocaust survivors. So we have to continue to tell our story so it can never get brushed aside. This happened. I get the question a lot 'why should people care?" This wasn't just a crime against Israel or the Jews, it was a crime against humanity and when a level of evil so high is breached, and when we allow things like what happened that day to happen, you never know when it's going to find you." said Beer.
A total of 364 civilians were killed at the Nova music festival in Israel during the October 7th attack. Additionally, approximately 40 people were taken hostage. The attack was part of a wider assault on southern Israel that resulted in approximately 1,200 deaths in total across different locations.
For Beer, she admits she carries 'survivors guilt' every day but talking to others and sharing her experience that day has helped her through the trauma.
"What does it mean to be a survivor of something so horrible? I didn't understand how I was able to survive and so many others didn't? And the fact that I get to do this gives me the answer to that because I wake up every day that I'm doing everything I can to prove that I do deserve to be there and that I was kept here for a reason. This has become my life's work."
The exhibit has been seen by a half million people around the world. It will be in Chicago through Sunday.
"People leave here different people. Coming in here, people are faced with the truth on a level they haven't faced before. People leave here with a big understanding about who we are. We are normal people, who love music, love going to festivals and we went through the most terrible thing imaginable. I think this changes a lot as people see us as people and as a community."
