DC: Holocaust Museum

Ella's History teacher told her the Holocaust Museum would be her favorite.  While, after 3 trips through this museum now, I can't ever say I "enjoy" it or it's "my favorite", I can always appreciate it.  To be confronted with some of humanity's darkest moments and most evil choices and to then see the light and redemption at the end of it is important.   One different thing about this trip through the Holocaust Museum was how much more historical fiction I've read since I was last here in 2003!  Thanks to my book club and our love for WWII stories, at least a dozen times, I found information in the museum that I could say, "I read a book about this!"

Your journey through the floors of the Holocaust Museum starts with a card telling the story of a real person who endured the Holocaust.  As you go through the floors and divisions in history, you turn pages to continue their story.  Three of our people were Polish, one Austrian.  Three of our people went to concentration camps.  Three of our people survived, one died in the gas chamber at Auschwitz.

  

The first floor tells of the Nazi Assault through propaganda and the steps taken to strip the Jews of their businesses and livelihoods and rights.  Here we learned about events like The Night of Broken Glass, where Jewish temples were desecrated, their Torah scrolls ripped and destroyed.  Dave tried to see if he could read any of the Hebrew.  He could. :)

  

The second floor tells of the horrific and drastic Final Solution of the Nazis to completely eliminate the Jews through mass murder in concentration camps.  The train car and the shoe room are always hard to walk through.

This museum was a tough one for Delia.  She did not know about a lot of this.  She had no idea what a gas chamber was.  She stayed close to Dave, letting him gently narrate the horrors we were learning about.  Ella has studied this in more advanced History classes.  She was hungry to read it all.  I hate the subject matter, but I do love watching her learn.

There is nothing pleasant about this journey through the Holocaust.  The last floor is about liberation and acknowledgment of all those who helped and worked to bring justice.  A bright spot in this dark outing was seeing the several panels of (familiar) Dutch names-- people who risked their lives and safety to help and protect Jews after the Germans invaded the Netherlands.

"Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them." Deut. 4:9

This afternoon at the Holocaust Museum was, appropriately, dark and gloomy.  Thunderstorms raged outside.  Needing a breath/break, or just admiring the rain we get to see so seldom, we had to stop and watch the drops streaming down the glass ceiling.