We visited the Holocaust Museum on Thursday. I remember that Lou wrote about her visit there. It's a place that's hard to describe.Some of the things that moved me to tears were the Tower of Faces. This is a three-story tower within the building, and is lined with about a thousand photographs of everyday life before the Holocaust in a small Lithuanian village. There are photographs of family groups, weddings, picnics, swimming parties, sporting events, holiday celebrations, gardening, bicycling and other aspects of daily life.
Before the war, the shtetl population was about 3,500, almost all Jewish. In September 1941, German SS rounded up the people of the shtetl, along with about a thousand Jews from the surrounding area, and systematically killed
them all.
And then there are the shoes. There seem to be a thousand shoes that were taken from those who were brought to concentration camps. The shoes are in the open air, and their musty smell is quite clear.
There is a Hall of Remembrance as you exit the Permanent Exhibit. This is a place to remember and reflect upon what you've seen. There is an eternal flame lit at one end of the hexoganally-shaped room, and quotes written on the walls.
It was here that we both held each other, filled with so much emotion over what we've seen.
Such a horrific thing that was done to six million humans. And yet genocide continues in this day and age. We each signed a pledge to do what we could to promote humanity for all and to live our lives with love and not hate.
I would recommend visiting this museum if visiting the DC area. And plan to spend several hours there so that you can see the entire exhibit. I think that anyone who does think about what they saw, will come away a different person.
There's also a Holocaust Museum here and it's awesome.
ReplyDeleteWords cannot describe those images. Thank you for sharing them with us.
ReplyDeletejust reading this fills me with emotion i am huge on human rights and it is hard to remember this when we get stuck in day to day rantings, thanks for this dose of humility Syd, i will be seeing the museum, don't know when but sometime.
ReplyDeleteYour reaction is so similar to what mine was about 5 years ago. It is an experience not to be forgotten. The empty box car really got to me...and the shoes.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope we never foget.
Thanks for this, Syd.
I have also been to Auschwitz, now a national memorial in Germany. I'm glad the exhibits are raw and emotional..people need to have the images burned in their mind and heart so as to never forget.
ReplyDeleteYou and spouse might enjoy the National Gardens for a break from the heaviness.
I went to the Dachau concentration camp in Germany, and I know I have not been the same since. That place reeked of pain and evil in a way I cannot explain. I am very glad I visited and I can also say I never want to go back there again.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope that this kind of thing nevers happens again and for those that deny that this ever happened are doomed to repeat these same mistakes.
ReplyDeletethis being said this does not excuse the brutality that was visited on the Jews,Gypsies,Catholics,and others.
It does not mean that trying to exterminate some one different from you,means that it is ok to do noto other that was done onto you.
And to imagine that there are actually people out there that still deny that this actually happened. It's difficult for me to fathom.
ReplyDeleteIt has been years since I visited that museum but I remember it well.
ReplyDeleteI've been to the museum before and it's just heartbreaking. I agree -- anyone who has a chance to should check it out.
ReplyDeleteThis is my first time coming by your blog and I really enjoyed it. Keep up the great work!
http://positivelypresent.typepad.com
I've always wanted to go....thanks for these images....very powerful:(
ReplyDeletei visited the border to east germany when i was about 8 years old, and i can still feel the barbed wire, the watch towers and barking dogs. this must be a million times more...
ReplyDeleteI went to the Holocaust Museum Yad Vashem in Israel and was similarily moved. The pictures have never really left me and I still think of it often ...20 years later. K x
ReplyDeleteBetween the Arlington Cemetary and the Holocaust Museum I would of been in tears. I don't think I could kept a dry eye if I tried. Such heartrending loss. (Hugs)Indigo
ReplyDeleteOne of my clients was a Holocaust survivor. I can't tell you what a privilege it was to care for her in her last months, weeks, days, breaths. An amazing woman. Thanks for sharing this with us Syd...I would love to visit someday.
ReplyDeleteYou have such a nice way of sharing such heavy things Syd.
ReplyDeletethank you for sharing these images and your experience Syd. I watched a wonderful movie this weekend..The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Its hard to say a movie is wonderful when it has such a devastating message but it was put through quite beautifully.
ReplyDeletethanks. looks awesome
ReplyDeleteSucha moving post Syd -- in South Africa we have Holocast Museums because of all the Lithuanian Jews who came here after the Second World War. And the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg was designed along similar lines, to remind everyone of the inhumanity of racism and so that a system like apartheid should never be created again. There is a museum being designed in Rwanda that also protests against genocide.
ReplyDeletexxMary LA