Saturday afternoon, Fuzzy and I visited the Holocaust Museum here in Washington, D.C. It is 4 floors of information and sensory overload. There was is so much much on display, so many items to view and media presentations that the brochure suggests that you take 2 to 3 hours to see everything. We stayed just over an hour and that was enough time to see a bit more than we wanted.
The Holocaust Museum sugar-coated nothing. The exhibits include photographs of mutilated bodies, body parts and even bodies of children being used for medical experiments. There are videos of Hitler, Nazi propoganda and murders. When we first stepped out of the elevator onto the 4th floor, the first stop in the permanent exhibit, we heard a woman sobbing. She must have had a personal connection to the Holocaust.
The Hall of Remembrance
The museum is a very solemn place as well. Although the building was crowded, there was very little talking. Any conversation was spoken in whispers as if everyone was afraid to raise their voice to a conversational tone. In a sense, it was out of respect for the dead and in awe of the enormity of such a tragedy.
It is definitely a museum to visit. However, it is best viewed on an empty stomach. But don't worry about being hungry when you leave, because you will lose your appetite, too.
4 comments:
I remember being in Amsterdam and touring Anne Frank's house. Words cannot describe how I felt. A few blocks away is the Homo Monument, dedicated to the gays and lesbians killed by the Nazis. I was so overwhelmed I began to sob. May we never forget. Thanks for posting this.
Thank you for your comments, Scooter. I felt compelled to post this since I recently read an article where an Islamic group protested successfully to close a Holocaust exhibition in Kentucky because they didn't believe it happened. The Holocaust Museum leaves no doubt. There was nothing fake or contrived about the slaughter of so many innocent people.
I wonder if many of the local schools take the children there to see it? I still have to wonder about people who want to claim that it never happened or that it wasn't as bad as what the Jews claim. We have a whole generation of young people growing up now who have never heard or know very little about the Holocaust. I would bet it gets alot of visitors.
Kathy, the Holocaust Museum gets many, many visitors. We were there on a 'slow' day and it was still crowded. This summer, during the high tourist season, it will be much worse. They have to regulate the number of people going through so they hand out passes for different starting times.
When we were there, I noticed a lot of student groups going through. I have been told that children under a certain age are not allowed inside the permanent exhibit because of the gruesome nature of many artifacts, but I haven't been able to find out of that's true.
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