Recently, my Gifted and Talented II class went to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. Before going to the museum, I had no idea what to expect. I had been hearing a lot of things about how great it was but I was curious as to what made it that way and how it changed so many people. I expected this museum to be like all the other one's by just being educational and not actually showing us or putting us in a particular person's shoes. But they held nothing back and showed us everything.
The way the museum was set up was brilliant. The
pictures, actual videos, shoes, hair and machines that they used clearly showed me what was happening during that time. Furthermore, two of the things that stuck out to me the most were the hair and the shoes. There was about 15,000 pounds of hair that was cut off from human's by the Germans and used for slippers, rugs, socks etc. I remember turning to my friends and saying that hair doesn't really weigh anything, let alone 15,000 pounds. Also, right across from that were thousands of old dirty shoes in a glass case ranging from adult shoes to baby shoes. For most people, including myself, it is really hard to visualize 6 million people. The shoes in that case were not even close to that number but they started to give me an idea of how big the number really is. The baby shoes especially stuck out to me because they had to suffer through this at such a young age. Their first years as a human were spent being tortured. Even the disabled people were suffering on top of their disability.
Another one of the rooms that amazed me was a whole room full of pictures. There were hundreds of pictures displaying the people and things that were happening. I didn't get a chance to see the Darfur exhibit but it broke my heart to hear that the murdering of humanity is still happening today and we are not doing anything to stop it. I came out of the museum a different person and learned so many things that I didn't know occurred. I would definitely recommend visiting the Holocaust Museum. It will change you and hopefully educate the world to stop genocides and wars.
The way the museum was set up was brilliant. Thepictures, actual videos, shoes, hair and machines that they used clearly showed me what was happening during that time. Furthermore, two of the things that stuck out to me the most were the hair and the shoes. There was about 15,000 pounds of hair that was cut off from human's by the Germans and used for slippers, rugs, socks etc. I remember turning to my friends and saying that hair doesn't really weigh anything, let alone 15,000 pounds. Also, right across from that were thousands of old dirty shoes in a glass case ranging from adult shoes to baby shoes. For most people, including myself, it is really hard to visualize 6 million people. The shoes in that case were not even close to that number but they started to give me an idea of how big the number really is. The baby shoes especially stuck out to me because they had to suffer through this at such a young age. Their first years as a human were spent being tortured. Even the disabled people were suffering on top of their disability.
Another one of the rooms that amazed me was a whole room full of pictures. There were hundreds of pictures displaying the people and things that were happening. I didn't get a chance to see the Darfur exhibit but it broke my heart to hear that the murdering of humanity is still happening today and we are not doing anything to stop it. I came out of the museum a different person and learned so many things that I didn't know occurred. I would definitely recommend visiting the Holocaust Museum. It will change you and hopefully educate the world to stop genocides and wars.
