This was one of our last days in Washington DC. We decided that today would be a good day to go to the Holocaust Museum. I'm glad that we dedicated a whole day to this museum and nothing else because it was just so overwhelming to be there and to see the things that we did.
You begin by getting an identification card when you come in to the museum. It is almost silent except for the exhibits that might have a video or sound clip. The identification card has the picture and name and some information about a person that experienced the holocaust. You get into an elevator and ride it up to the fourth floor and work your way down to the bottom.
The entire fourth floor is basically dedicated to Hitler and how he came into power. It also talks about how the Germans began to boycott Jewish businesses and eventually causing the Jewish people to seek refuge in other countries to survive. It was interesting to see how many countries would not allow them to come to their country for a variety of reasons. It continued on with a little more history before it worked its way down to the third floor.
On the third floor, there was a lot of information about the ghettos that the Jews were forced to live in and a little about some of the Jews that went in to hiding. From here on down to the first floor, everything just started blending together and all of the information just came so fast. Once you finish reading about the ghettos, you immediately learn about the concentration and death camps and how they were built. It was starting to get very real and then you are forced to walk through a train car. This train car is one that was actually used to transport Jewish people from their homes to these terrible camps. The car was very small and would have been completely dark if the doors were closed. You read that there were usually about 100 people crammed into this tiny car and I was completely taken over by my emotions. It was so horrible, I had to get out as fast as I could. Upon exiting the train car, you are immediately greeted with the sign from Auschwitz that lead the people to believe they could actually work for their freedom. There were bunks from Auschwitz II where too many people were packed on and had to sleep together, even when diseased and sick. There were models of the gas chambers and "experimental" photos of some things they would do to the people. There was a room called "Voices from Auschwitz" where survivors recounted their experiences. Next you walked into a hallway that was full of shoes. There were just piles and piles of leather shoes that were taken from the prisoners. Then there were ovens used for cremations and rails used for burning outside. Next were metal tables that were used for "harvesting" the gold and silver teeth from the dead.
Finally you get to the point where other countries begin to come in and liberate the camps. Oddly enough, after the liberations took place, all but one country still denied survivors to live among them.
As you can see, this was a very insightful experience and one that I will not soon forget. We did not really do anything for the rest of the day, but we didn't really feel up to doing anything else anyway.
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