United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C.
A must if visiting DC.
I’ve only been once. It was a 7th grade school field trip to coincide with our reading “Anne Frank”. When we went (about 12 years ago), they gave us each an identification booklet with the name/photo/personal history of an actual Holocaust victim. The museum was separated into 3 stories and you go from the ground up with each level representing a different time during the war. Your ID booklet follows along with the 3 levels. Each page pertains to a floor level which tells you what happened to that person during that time. I remember getting to the end of my booklet at the 3rd level to discover that the woman, whose last name was Katz, was killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz. They do not sugar coat it for you, which is actually good because you get to feel the reality of what happened. My favorite exhibits were the pieces of actual barracks where the people were housed and most memorably, the piles of shoes taken from the people as they entered the camps. The shoes had a distinct smell about them, as if they had just been taken off. The museum succeeds in trying to put you in the middle of it all. I remember coming out thinking, “Wow! It’s astounding what mankind is capable of!” I want to go back and take my husband sometime soon.
over 2 years ago
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