The Holocaust Memorial Museum
Nov. 20th, 2023 09:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerThanksgiving Travelog #6
Washington, DC - Sun, 19 Nov 2023. 2:30pm.
Sunday we visited the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. It's a place that's been on our to-see list for many years that we haven't gotten to for many reasons... including major things like the Coronavirus pandemic causing us to cancel at least one trip to Washington, DC as well as prosaic things such as difficulty getting tickets. Until now. We had tickets for 10am, when the museum opens, and no fixed plans until after the museum's closure this afternoon. It turned out we didn't need all day. We spent 4 hours there, unrushed.
This visit is not an easy topic to write about. Unlike most museums, which celebrate accomplishments in art, society, or technology, this one commemorates the losses in a very dark chapter in human history. But it also asks us not to look away from what happened— because by looking away we make it easier for those who would deny or minimize what happened, and make it more likely such things will happen again.
Speaking of happening again, one thing that struck me over and over in reading about Hitler's consolidation of power in Germany in the 1930s and the way he wielded it, is just how many parallels there are in the US politics of the past 8 years. Or even in the past 8 days.
You think something like this won't/can't happen again? Bub, we're already several steps down the road to it happening again.
. . .
I don't want to make this entry too heavy a political one so I'll skip ahead to one of the last exhibits we visited in the memorial. This is the Hall of Remembrance:
In this room is a bit of earth from each of the concentration camps where a total of several million Jewish people were murdered. Small candles on several of the walls are there for visitors to light in remembrance of those slain.
The inscription on the far wall is from the Book of Deuteronomy:
Washington, DC - Sun, 19 Nov 2023. 2:30pm.
Sunday we visited the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. It's a place that's been on our to-see list for many years that we haven't gotten to for many reasons... including major things like the Coronavirus pandemic causing us to cancel at least one trip to Washington, DC as well as prosaic things such as difficulty getting tickets. Until now. We had tickets for 10am, when the museum opens, and no fixed plans until after the museum's closure this afternoon. It turned out we didn't need all day. We spent 4 hours there, unrushed.
This visit is not an easy topic to write about. Unlike most museums, which celebrate accomplishments in art, society, or technology, this one commemorates the losses in a very dark chapter in human history. But it also asks us not to look away from what happened— because by looking away we make it easier for those who would deny or minimize what happened, and make it more likely such things will happen again.
Speaking of happening again, one thing that struck me over and over in reading about Hitler's consolidation of power in Germany in the 1930s and the way he wielded it, is just how many parallels there are in the US politics of the past 8 years. Or even in the past 8 days.
You think something like this won't/can't happen again? Bub, we're already several steps down the road to it happening again.
. . .
I don't want to make this entry too heavy a political one so I'll skip ahead to one of the last exhibits we visited in the memorial. This is the Hall of Remembrance:
In this room is a bit of earth from each of the concentration camps where a total of several million Jewish people were murdered. Small candles on several of the walls are there for visitors to light in remembrance of those slain.
The inscription on the far wall is from the Book of Deuteronomy:
Only guard yourself and guard your soul carefully, lest you forget the things your eyes saw, and lest these things depart your heart all the days of your life. And you shall make them known to your children and your children's children.
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Date: 2023-11-21 08:02 am (UTC)