Holocaust Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC

"The things I saw beggar description.... The visual evidence and the verbal testimony of starvation, cruelty and bestiality were...overpowering.... I made the visit deliberately, in order to be in [a] position to give first-hand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to "propaganda."

-General Dwight D. Eisenhower

April 15, 1945

After the open top tour, we spent 3 hours at the Holocaust Museum. Everyone said this was the thing to see in DC. And they were right. It's...well...horrifying. The museum itself is one large state-of-the-art exhibit with some very creative installations, like the three-story portrait room.

Three-story room of portraits

I was struck by the vast number of pictures that actually show Nazis murdering Jews. I mean, they must have had a photo-journalist along to document everything.... That sure came back to bite them in the ass. The thoroughness, the sheer amount of effort taken by the Nazis to identify and isolate the Jewish population was simply staggering not to mention the cruel efficiency. I mean, 30,000 people in 2 days?!? It's...well...horrifying.

I know people say the room with the shoes is really emotional. And it is. But what I was most moved by were the stories of uprising and revolt in the ghettos, in the death camps themselves, and in small pockets across Europe. These people were utterly defenseless and weak and young. It's as if they were saying, "If you're going to kill me, you're going to do it on my terms." True heroes. Only a handful of these people survived.

Check out their website: http://www.ushmm.org/