Reflections

The reason I started this blog was to chronicle my adventures as I began a new job and new life in the Foreign Service. The funny experiences, the different sights, sounds, and foods, sharing these things with friends, family, and strangers who might be interested. Today is not going to be one of those funny days. Today I went to the National Holocaust Museum.

On my last trip to DC I visited several museums and had a wonderful time. Now that I am living here I intend to go to them all, and for some reason I chose the Holocaust Museum. Maybe it was because I am feeling down and missing my family, maybe because I wanted to get it out of the way, and maybe because I had heard how moving an experience it was for others. Regardless, I chose to visit it today. To say that I was overwhelmed is a serious understatement. The weight of the exhibits was far more than I ever thought possible. I have seen video of the concentration camps, pictures of the liberation, and different examples of what Hitler did, but NEVER in such breadth or depth. Even typing this in the comfort of my room I am overcome with emotion when I think of the section regarding the mental hospitals and what was done to children. Horrifying! Seeing the tower of photos from the city of Ejszyszki, and learning that so many were killed was another moment that will live with me forever. But the most striking thing of all, as strange as it may seem, was the part of the exhibit that was nothing but shoes taken from victims when they arrived at the camps. Mstly old and decaying leather, many of the shoes still had dye on them and you could see that they had been bright red at some point. 
There were parts of the exhibit that I found to be intensely graphic and thought that I will never bring my children there. But another part of me is saying that at a certain age, they need to see this and understand that it is necessary to stand up to evil. 


I knew I would be moved by this experience, I just had no idea I would be moved this much. If those of you that read this have never been to this museum, I encourage you to do so. If you have, encourage others that have not. 


If you have gotten this far, thank you for reading all of this, and I promise such occurrences will be rare.

Be well my friends