The Holocaust museum at Washington DC is a memorial that "confronts hatred and genocide" as the website https://www.ushmm.org/ states. The museum is open through out the year and free. However, tickets can be obtained for The Holocaust a permanent exhibition in 3 floors which is worth every minute of your visit. It takes an hour to two to visit this part in detail.
During my visit, a featured exhibit with free tours by a guide was available that starts every 15 minutes and lasts for 15 minutes titled "Some were Neighbors". The Special exhibition for children titled 'The Daniel's story" presents the holocaust through the diary/eyes of an young child.
Pre-booking is necessary to visit the permanent Exhibition during the busy months of March to August. Though I could not pre-book a ticket for The Holocaust Museum months in advance as my trip was not planned that early, I was still able to get one by going online at 6 AM on the day of the visit and was able to procure one admission for the 1 PM slot. Please have a valid Credit card available to book this online and you will be charged $1 as the online booking charge. You can book for one or more persons with one transaction alone. You will be allowed to report 15 minutes prior to your time slot for the entry to this exhibition. As you move through the lines to take the elevator, You will have a chance to pick up a small handbook that contains the name and details of a random genocide victim.
Spread across 3 floors, The best way to view is to start at the top floor and make down to the last floor. The Top floor exhibits Nazi coming into power, their definition of Jew and their suffering under Nazis. The next floor exhibits Final solution describing Nazis policies to eliminate Jews. The Rail car, The Auschwitz entrance gate Arch casting and crematorium model, The Majdanek gas chamber door casting and the Zyklon pellets found there on display, The bunks are mute witnesses of the genocide and inhumanity.
The final floor exhibits rescue and war. The letters to US big wigs to send fighter planes to Auchwitz that was first refused but consequent bombings at near by area after a day of two gave hope to the prisoners. The shoes ,Photographs on display of the tons of hair shorn from prisoners (being exhibited at the State Museum of Auschwitz), castings of crematorium tables, and crematorium ovens are heart-wrenching.
As we walk out through the towers of photographs of victims, we reach the landing with some seating available to view the documentary of survivors. The Hall of Remembrance allows visitors to light candles.
As displayed on the museum wall with the shoes display -
We are the Shoes, We are the Last witnesses
We are the Shoes from grand children and grand fathers
From Prague, Paris, and Amsterdam,
And because we are only made of fabric and leather
and not of blood and flesh, each one of us avoided the Hell fire.
- Yiddish Poet Moses Schulstein
Visiting this place was definitely not a pleasant sight. That some of us could be so unimaginably inhuman does not provide any sort of comfort or a safe environment to our future. At the least, we should practice and teach our kids to be tolerant of all races, cultures and religions. After all, we all evolved from the same species. That being proven, No one's birth, race or religion could be superior to other's.
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