United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

When we went in to DC on Wednesday, we decided to get off the Metro a couple of stops earlier than the one that was closest to the Museum of the Bible and walk over to visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Many years ago, we had visited Yad Vashem when we were in Jerusalem. We knew that it would be a heart rending visit, but also that we wanted to see it.

When we entered the museum, we were directed to an elevator lobby where we each collected an identification card booklet. These gave us an identity of a person impacted by the Holocaust to carry with us and think about as we journeyed through history. The elevator took us to the 4th floor and started our journey through the history - starting with The Nazi Assault, 1933-1939, on the 4th floor, continuing with The Final Solution, 1940-1945, on the 3rd floor, and ending with The Last Chapter, on the 2nd floor. In our identification card booklets, we could read a paragraph about what our person dealt with in each of those times. It happened that each of our people survived the war and eventually emigrated to the US (my lady was from Germany and lost her mother and sister in labor camps, and Dwayne's man was from Ukraine, fought as part of the Red Army but was captured and held in Auschwitz, eventually liberated and returned to Odessa after being questioned by the Soviets to determine if he were a traitor).

I don't think that pictures from this museum would give you a sense of the place. For me, the biggest impact was the overwhelming responsibility that each of us holds to ensure that this never happens again. I was praying that God would open my eyes to where these types of things are happening today. In the 1930s and 1940s, many did see what was happening and did resist, either openly or covertly, and many of them paid with their lives as well.

This quote which was presented near the end of the permanent exhibition was the only picture I took at the museum... it is a well known quote, I think, but is a reminder to me that I need to be ready and willing to speak out.