Holocaust Memorial Museum

[RockabyeHamlet]

Posted: 4/17/07 at 12:12am

I'm in D.C. this week and went to The National Holocaust Memorial Museum today (of all days.) I just wanted to express how impressed I was by the museum. I spend a great deal of time going to museums, and I have never felt like I felt going through this one. I could not find any words to respond to my collegue when she asked what I thought. I just stared and tried to take in every bit of information it had to offer. We budgeted to spend 2 hours. I was there for 5 (I told her to go on and get lunch, if she wanted.) I felt like if I walked by anything, any photo, video, or artifact, that it would be an immense disservice to the memory of those 6 million people, i was learning about. I have read a great deal of things about the Holocaust, and watched many videos, but nothing prepares you to see all those shoes, all those personal artifacts, and think that all those people were no more then a number (if even) or a body to OTHER HUMANS! And to think this still goes on today, in Darfur, in Iraq/Iran. Have we learned nothing!?

As I was walking down that long marble staircase, I observed a young girl, maybe 6 or 7, descending the same staircase and crying. She asked her mother " Why do people do those things to each other, Mommy? Why?" and her mother said quite defiantly, "You'll understand when your older." And I wanted to turn to them and say, "No you won't."

Updated On: 4/17/07 at 12:12 AM

[ElphieDefiesGravity]

Posted: 4/17/07 at 1:04am

It really is a great museum.
When I went about 6 or so years ago, my parents wouldn't let me go past the really graphic exhibits, although I really wanted to. I also wanted to take in everything.

[Link Larkin Wanabe]

Posted: 4/17/07 at 1:14am

It is a SUPERB museum. Designed with such intelligence and sensitivity, it works for so many different types of people. I think the kids portion is brilliant, and my favourite part of the museum.

Yad Va'shem, which is the major Holocaust memorial centre in Jerusalem, Israel is an even more powerful and emotional experience, and a bit less of an intellectual one (which makes sense since it is more of a memorial than a museum). One of the most amazing experiences of my life is the room where they have one tiny candle reflected ALLLLLLL over, everywhere around you so that you feel like you are floating in a galaxy of flickering stars. It symbolizes (at least to me) the fact that for every person killed in the Holocaust, their entire bloodline and future children and descendants are taken away from us too.

Akiva

[DG]

Posted: 4/17/07 at 1:46am

"You'll understand when your older." And I wanted to turn to them and say, "No you won't."

That certainly is true today.

I can't go through these places. The pain is too great, and I don't need the lesson.

But I'm thankful they exist, because obviously there are those who need to know.

[RadiGal2]

Posted: 4/17/07 at 3:07am

I have not been there since it opened...actually, I am saving our pennies for a trip East soon and this is high on my agenda.

My poor kids have been shown Sometimes in April and Hotel Rwanda every April since they were made....forced to digest Maus I and II & Night as soon as they could handle it. They have cried for days and had nightmares for weeks following the first viewing, sometimes it breaks my heart to show this bleak tragedy to them...but then I reconsider because knowledge is the only real power any of us have. The ability to think critically, evaluate the information we are given...to question the reason why...and ultimately-- to challenge.

Updated On: 4/17/07 at 03:07 AM

[DG]

Posted: 4/17/07 at 3:09am

Rad - as much as I understand the reasoning and intent, I have to wonder what the point is once they've gotten the message. Isn't that akin to wallowing in the pain? I just can't do it.

[RadiGal2]

Posted: 4/17/07 at 3:16am

DG --
Perhaps but, my kids are rich.
Very, very rich.
Trust fund rich.
Life comes kinda easy too them.
They do not have any real grasp on what most people face -- including me...

The one thing I can give them is my sense of humanity and duty. Compassion and understanding and the ability to think and know how to find valid information and form an independent idea.

They are too young to tromp around the desert with me. They have no idea what goes on during the nights and days I spend out there. I risk arrest, and I would not bring them out there while they are under 18 under any circumstances.

But we can share these movies and documentaries so that when the time comes than they venture out into the world-- they at least have some idea of what most of the world faces on a daily basis.

Updated On: 4/17/07 at 03:16 AM

[DG]

Posted: 4/17/07 at 3:22am

Rad - I know those deserts, and if there old enough to be presented with the ideologies in those films, they're old enough to partake at least SOMEWHAT in your walkabouts - and I hope you give them that - AND share what it is that you're thinking and feeling out there.

I really do applaud the attempt to open their eyes - I just hope it doesn't harden their hearts in the process. I have to guard against that daily (hourly? By the minute?)

[RadiGal2]

Posted: 4/17/07 at 3:28am

Sorry I added to the post...but no I can't take them out...it is a moral dilemma of course... but not right now...
consider if I were to run into a migrant in need of help and got caught and arrested and they landed in social services.. which would do the greater harm.... not being able to assist someone in need over my children's welfare..either way it is lose-lose.

Actually, now that they have been through it a couple times they find it interesting. They ask a lot questions, raise money...my oldest has been doing some Darfur awareness at school lately... my youngest loves having lemonade stands for different organizations... the IRC is her current favorite.

[DG]

Posted: 4/17/07 at 3:46am

Rad - that's certainly an interesting point concerning the migrants. I wouldn't have considered that - but I also wouldn't have thought about traveling through desert that that might occur.

Perhaps you could take them on a day walk that that wouldn't necessarily pose a risk? It would be a shame for them to miss that experience.

Of course, if you always have that in your mind when you go out, maybe YOU need to take a walk that doesn't center around that issue

[RadiGal2]

Posted: 4/17/07 at 3:56am

Oh that sort of desert we do all the time, indeed, I am a desert rat...

But my work on border regions, which has played the central role in the definition of 'who I am' since I was, hmm, about 6th grade...so what 11, 12 I suppose? Every year since 1996 the death toll rises every spring/sumer traveling season and every year I find myself out on the trails and I quite often run into people lost, desperate, dying even I dread the day I run into a Minuteman instead of the Border Patrol.

Not to worry I pull my son out of school for the big migrants rights march/rallies in Phoenix last year...it was absolutely an incredible experience, there must have been 250K people there, a year later and he still talks about it often.

If you're wondering...no, I still have not forgiven Clinton for NAFTA.

[DG]

Posted: 4/17/07 at 4:03am

Well, good - I'm glad to know the desert itself has played a part in their lives.

And in case YOU'RE wondering, I still haven't forgiven Clinton for 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'

[RadiGal2]

Posted: 4/17/07 at 4:13am

DG...I hear you...I have a laundry list of things I haven't forgiven Clinton for, including Don't Ask Don't Tell, alas, I still have this sick twisted lust for the man.

I have empathy for battered women because of William Jefferson Clinton, no matter how much he kicked me, beat me, or broke me -- he could still bring me to tears with his orations, inspire me in a way that no other politician ever has (with a speech, not his record..if only Bill Bradley had a fraction of his charsima...he would be President now.)... it's depraved I know. My ex-husband was said he was often jealous of passions -- both good and bad -- that Clinton inspired in me.

Updated On: 4/17/07 at 04:13 AM

[blueroses]

Posted: 4/17/07 at 10:21am

I can't help myself. I love Clinton, too, Radi. No other politician has had a similar effect on me in my lifetime.

I feel like I have an obligation to visit the Holocaust Memorial Museum and I hope to be able to make a trip in the near future. I haven't been to D.C. since I went to a pro-choice rally back in '91 or so.

[RadiGal2]

Posted: 4/17/07 at 11:15am

blueroses, it's a painful sort of abusive love. As a far-left leaning reasonably rabid liberal cosmopolitan -- Clinton managed to infuriate me far more than Bush ever could....

I know what to expect from Bush but justifying far more than I ever expect to from Clinton, well, let's just say; not-so-much.

[blueroses]

Posted: 4/17/07 at 11:35am

Ah, I hear ya, Radi--although as a moderate Dem (who is extremely liberal on social issues including reproductive freedom and the rights for gays to marry and adopt) we're probably not completely on the same page.

How old were your kids when you showed them those movies? I remember being in fourth or fifth grade and having to watch brutal Holocaust footage (corpses, seeing the ovens, etc.) in Hebrew school. I knew the message they wanted to drive home...showing us this so we knew it was real, so we would never let something like this happen again. It gave me nightmares, though.
Updated On: 4/17/07 at 11:35 AM

[thirdrowcenter]

Posted: 4/17/07 at 12:03pm

I visited the Holacaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC when it first opened. One of the exhibits haunts me to this day. Three photographs of a dwarf with malformed spine: l. jauntily dressed with suit and hat 2. standing nude in exact same position 3. his skeleton in the very same position. Grotesque to imagine this ever happening.

[AudreyTwoTwo]

Posted: 4/17/07 at 1:22pm

What a great museum. I went there with my school, and they squished us all in the cattle carts so we could see how it felt. I would have taken more time but of course I was with my classmates.

[sweetdisaster]

Posted: 4/17/07 at 1:57pm

My family's going on vacation to DC for a week this summer, and is the thing I don't want to miss. I've been to DC before and have always wanted to see this but never had the chance. I've always been fascinated with the Holocaust.

[RadiGal2]

Posted: 4/17/07 at 2:34pm

blueroses -- hmm let's see...I had them read MAUS when they reached 6th grade....My oldest was about 14 I suppose when Sometimes in April came out...and shortly thereafter Hotel Rwanda. I am bit more relentless about looking over the Ghosts of Rwanda and Triumph of Evil both excellent Frontline documentaries...it's a bit less in your face and still gives them most of the facts and a lot of follow up resources are contained on the site and easily referenced.


I still get the shakes when I think about those days beginning on April 6, 1994. I have the news on in the background and I can hear the convocation ceremony beginning, and in the past 24 hours I have found it interesting how well publicized this Va Tech shooting is and how very emotional people are (justifiably) feeling; but just last semester in a Moral Dilemmas class we were shown Hotel Rwanda and well over half the class had even been aware of it before viewing the film.....it's just so damn -- frustrating.

It truly pains me how manufactured and selective the media is..

[Holly Therese]

Posted: 4/17/07 at 2:52pm

Third Row Center...that was the thing that really haunted me too.

I went in the 8th grade on a field trip to DC with my class, and I'll never forget the feeling in my spine when I walked through the train car, and past the shoes. Unfortunately while I was there, there was a bomb threat and we were forced to leave. I never made it through the museum, but even if we weren't forced to leave, I dont know that I could have made it through. My experience there has got to be one of the most emotional experiences of my life.

[ikmbway]

Posted: 4/17/07 at 2:55pm

I went last November. It was one of the last days I had in DC and I was getting tired of museums but I walked in and the elevator ride up I finally realized that this wasn't any ordinary museum. It is the best museum I have been too. The medical images on the TVs were probably the hardest for me to look at. The detached body parts and the graphics were just heartbreaking. There was no way a book was going to teach me what I learned when I walked through.

[ABSteel]

Posted: 4/17/07 at 3:00pm

I've been to the one in Dallas and it tears me up.