Visibly shaking, Chicagoan Julia Shindel remembered the first time she saw her 23-year-old son, Mark, just days after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack.
"To kill a child is to kill his mom," Shindel said. "Dead with a bullet on his left eye."
Her son is one of the 430 victims spread across a wall at the Nova Music Festival exhibit, "The Moment Music Stood Still."
Two years later, survivors of the attack are reliving that day.
"I couldn't run away. I couldn't leave because I knew I'm the only one that can help you," Doron Mizrahi said.
Mizrahi was driving his car down the road in Israel when he stopped to pull bodies from a bomb shelter, saving as many lives as he could.
"I found 10-20 people wounded, dead," Mizrahi said.
SEE ALSO: Israel hands over bodies of 45 Palestinians after Hamas returns the remains of 3 soldiers
He recently walked across floors covered in sand, surrounded with 20,000 objects from the festival site: tents, clothing, teddy bears, even the port-a-potties, to see touch and smell the day.
"It's not part of the past; it's still a bleeding wound for all of us," exhibit director Reut Feingold said.
Feingold says she incorporated footage from survivors, Israeli police and from the Hamas terrorists
She says it's meant to bring truth to the day, ending with a healing exhibit to remind the world that there will be dancing once again.
"This place is the most honest and painful truth we have known," Mizrahi said.
"This is our vow to dance for them," Feingold said.
The Nova Festival exhibit will be open to the public starting Tuesday through the end of November, at 1800 N. Clybourn Ave. on Chicago's North Side.
Visit https://novaexhibition.com for more information.