“United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: Journey to a dark past”

During the Second World War, the Nazi regime led by Adolf Hitler held the planned execution of millions of Jews which they called the “final solution of the Jewish question.” This attempt to create “the perfect race” in a world without the Jewish later became known as the holocaust. The holocaust is one of the most devastating tragedies to occur in documented history. It showed how unchecked hatred can consume an entire nation and cause the death of innocent millions. The genocide of Jews and other minorities in Nazi Germany should always be remembered and lessons should be learned from it. In response to this tragedy, The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum was erected. On July 27th 2008, I had the privilege of visiting this museum. That day, the videos and the images I witnessed will be etched in my mind forever.

The day was uncharacteristically cold and gloomy for late July. It almost seemed as if the weather was part of the exhibit. At first glance, the exterior of the building could have been mistaken for the Department of Agriculture building that once stood on the grounds where the museum currently resides. However, elements of the interior appeared as if they were situated on the other side of a portal in time and not a meager tinted glass door off of a Washington D.C. city street. After passing through a security checkpoint that was an illusion of safety with disinterested guards and the same old metal detectors we have become accustomed to seeing, the room opened up into what felt like a train of bus terminal of 1930's Europe. The hard scrapple walls furnishings of brick, wood and twisted metal provided a message that this was not the kind of museum where people would go to see glorified arts and crafts. This was the kind of museum that would have a visceral impact on those that chose to wander its halls.

The museum's permanent exhibit has been arranged in chronological order starting at the top floor which depicts pre WWII Europe. To get to the top floor, patrons took a short elevator ride which displayed a short video narrated by an American soldier. Images of pain and suffering flashed before our eyes, as the narrator recited what he had seen upon discovering the death camps that were liberated by allied troops. Arriving at the top of the building both sides of the hallway were both still and video images Germany in the 1930's. The ominous presence of Adolf Hitler was instantly felt by hearing his voice over the speakers of a television set as he gave a speech of hate filled rhetoric and ant-Semitic propaganda. In addition to pictures, articles of clothing were displayed on the walls that not only included uniforms of Nazi soldiers, but also a dress that had an embroidered patch of the Star of David to signify the wearer as a Jew. There was even a roadway checkpoint turnpike purposely impeding the way through the hallway to the area that portrayed Poland much as the border to Poland was impeded seventy years ago. Poland was significant to this of the exhibit because it was the first territory that Germany conquered in there evil quest. The fourth floor of the museum was more than successful in representing pre-war Europe.

The third floor of the exhibit was the most disturbing. This is the floor that covered 1940-1945 in which Hitler and his oppressive Nazi regime escalated their plan for final resolution by operating their concentration and death camps. Perhaps the most disturbing sight in the museum was the enormous sculpture that depicted the deceitful moments just prior to hundreds of innocent Jews being gassed to death in what was supposed to be a relaxing shower. Words simply can not describe the feeling of seeing mothers and their children having to strip down naked in a room full of people thinking they were being given the basic human right of being clean, only to be walked into a death chamber .Some victims took up to a half hour to die from breathing in the toxic fumes. The hair of the dead women, gold from dental work and sometimes bones were collected. The hair and leather shoes of some victims were on display and you could smell the leather. As strange as it may sound the people that were taken to concentration camps could have been considered lucky. Not all the victims of the holocaust were taken to the death camp and executed. Some of the victims were taken to concentration camps where they were starved and forced into a life of dirty hard labor. I do wish there were more information about the lives of the Nazis including how propaganda was used to mask their conscience.


April 12, 1945: Nordhausen Concentration Camp,
where 20,000 inmates were believed to have died.



At the second and last floor of the permanent exhibition, I saw an original IBM card sorting machine that was used for organizing the census that first identified the Jews. It was amazing how technology was used to methodically wipe out millions of people. There was a freight car that was used to transport Jews from Poland to the Treblinka death camp. It was especially sad to see the Hall of faces which was crammed with framed photographs of 3,000 Jewish residents of a town who were all murdered on a single day.

the Hall of Faces, a narrow, three-story-high space crammed with framed photographs of the 3,000 Jewish residents of a single Lithuanian town, who were murdered in September 1941

They also had a collection of shoes worn by the poor victims piled up high. There were also models of the gas chambers and media depicting how they were used. Such imagery was hard to witness but it was necessary to show the mass scale in which Jews were prosecuted in the German occupied regions


Collection of shoes of murdered Jews, smell of sweat and leather can still be smelt.

I would be remiss to not make reference to the non-Jewish victims of the holocaust as well. Sadly, institutionalized handicapped children, mentally retarded, handicapped, homosexual, gypsies and trade unionists were also targeted by the Nazi regime. In the quest to create a perfect and healthy race, people were sterilized; women forced to have abortions and mercilessly killed. In 1936, Heinrich Himmler, Commander of the Schutzstaffel, a major Nazi paramilitary organization, created the "Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion”. Homosexuals were considered impure and a burden along with people suffering from mental or genetic or physical disorders. Unforgivable crimes were committed to rid the nation of the weak.

This site made me learn more of the events that led to World War II. I learned about the crimes against humanity that had spread through the world. There was oppression everywhere but it is terrifying to see how organized and systematic the Nazis were killing the Jews. They indiscriminately killed entire generations of people without mercy. What was even more appalling was how educated these perpetuators of hate were. Many top commanders of Hitler had doctorates. There were doctors conducting unscrupulous experiments on poor victims including kids. It is unnerving to realize how an entire nation lost its conscience under a dictator.

After the visit I read some stories of survivors and their efforts to track down their relatives and what happened to them. I read of a survivor’s trip back to Auschwitz concentration camp and how he could smell death from miles away and the painful memories that came with it. There are human rights violations happening everyday in every country. It is interesting to see how the perpetuators of hate and violence use the techniques and the same oratorical skills to spread their venom.

The Holocaust is one of the most horrific events in modern history. The senseless slaughter of millions upon millions of innocent people at the hands of Nazi butchers was incited when a man by the name of Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933. The Nazis wrought terrible deaths and destruction on Europe in the following years, beginning with Aryanization and ending with the Final Solution in a maniacal plot to exterminate and purify the human race. The Holocaust should be remembered by all as a dark point in modern history.



For more information:
visit - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum,
http://www.ushmm.org/museum

Holocaust Newspaper archive
http://www.holocaustarchive.com/Home.aspx