The Holocaust Museum

I had been to the Holocaust Museum on my last visit, when I was 15. I remember being shocked by many of the things I saw and of course deeply moved. This time I knew what to expect, had a lot more background knowledge, and believe it or not, I still wanted to go. I am fascinated by that period in history despite how morbid it can be.

The museum is designed to echo the feeling of a ghetto, with tall brick walls and a glass ceiling that shows the sky. It is bleak and depressing even from the outside. The museum is divided into three parts, basically beginning, middle, and end. The first section shows how Hitler came to power and began to use propaganda and fear to gain support. One thing I was not as aware of was how much he used the public schools to indoctrinate young children about races and politics. There were charts used to demonstrate the features of different races, and children were taught the two classifications of people: superior and inferior races. I had always thought that Aryan meant blond hair and blue eyes, but according to the charts I might yet have made it though...as long as one wasn't African, Asian, or of course Jewish, you might just make it.

However, I think it's important to acknowledge that the Holocaust wasn't completely about race. It was really more about who was and was not an "enemy of the state". Most people know that Jews were required to wear yellow stars--but I didn't know that the stars were really two triangles together, and the other undesireables were forced to wear different colored triangles based on their "offense". Criminals wore green, purple was for Jehovah's Witnesses (partly because they refused to serve in the millitary), pink was for homosexuals, red was for political prisoners, and so on. Also, the first victims of the Holocaust were those in institutions with mental and physical handicaps. This operation began with forced sterilization and escalated to extermination.

The actual details of the ghettos and concentration camps are the most difficult and disgusting part of the experience, but they are (in my opinion) necessary. In fact, the point of the whole museum is to remember, so that these events will not be repeated. There are pictures and models of gas chambers, train cars used to transport people like cattle, and other artifacts of destruction. The final portion of the museum might actually be the most moving, because it simply shows the aftermath: thousands of shoes, personal items and shorn hair from those who entered the camps. The sheer numbers of each are overwhelming, and of course they only scratch the surface. There are also survivor stories, complete with pictures of the number tattoos on their forearms that will never disappear.

The last part of the museum that you experience is the remembrance hall, which is similar to a chapel or a memorial. It has candles and simple inscriptions of the name of each concentration camp and situation where thousands died. Again visitors are reminded to "never forget".

At the beginning of the tour, each person is given an identity of an actual holocaust victim with information about their life before, during, and after the war. Visitors are encouraged to read these portions during the three sections of the museum. My identity this time through was a young French Jewish woman who was sent to a concentration, and survived.

It's not by any means a fun experience, but thoroughly educational and, in my opinion, necessary. I would recommend it to any visitor to the area over the age of 14 or so. Even if it seems unlikely that any similar situation could happen again, there are other applications for this knowledge. We need to remember to think for ourselves, remember the power of education on young minds, and to value each and every human life as precious.