Aiden - Holocaust Musuem

So this summer, my family and I decided to take a trip to Washington D.C as a final trip of summer. While there we visited various museums and memorials, for example Arlington National Cemetery, or the Spy Museum. However, the museum that I remember the most would have to be the Holocaust Museum. The Holocaust Museum was not something that I expected, I understood that it was a serious museum and that a lot of respect was needed, I think that it was expected that anyone attending was mature enough to comprehend everything that was there and all the history. It was a very somber place understandably, but the atmosphere was very serious and everyone there seemed to be caught up in all the exhibits. It wasn't like a normal museum where people were making comments on all the exhibits.

When you first walk in, you are given a card that has the name and description of someone who died during the Holocaust. You then take an elevator up to the first exhibit. Now, the museum is a place to learn a lot, you learn about the history of Germany and what the Holocaust was. You also learn what was happening in America and how little we did to stop it. There was even the Berlin Olympics held during the Holocaust where they refused to let Jewish athletes compete. As soon as you see the first exhibit you really understand that this was a serious thing that happened, I know that we learn about it in history classes but seeing physical evidence of their conditions and videos is a whole different perspective. At one point there was a room full of shoes that was supposed to represent how many children there were at the different camps. It was not a small room, and that was a really strange thing to see. There was also the room where they had survivors of the camps speaking about their experiences, the way they talked about was not what I expected at all. The amount of information that a person gets from that museum is more than anyone will get in a standard history class, and it really gives you a greater understanding of the Holocaust and what happened, I would have to say that the room that had the most impact in the Museum was the memorial at the end, it was a large round room that had names all over the walls. There were too many there to read in the amount of time we were there, probably for an entire day, but it was just terrifying that people could do this to others in that large a number. The whole experience is something that everyone should see at least once in their lives, it gives a new perspective and a lot more respect to the subject.