Holocaust Museum

Yesterday, I walked EVERYWHERE!! I thought my legs would fall off and I wouldn't be able to get back home. I started the day by going to the US Holocaust museum. It was raining and overcast outside, so it was the perfect thing to do. I didn't know what to expect and the place was kinda confusing, or at least it seemed like it. I went to the information desk and the lady there told me that it's set up to be a little confusing, kinda how it would've been like then. We start by getting a 'passport' with a name and it tells what our 'person' would have faced during the different years that the atrocity went on. We next got on an elevator up to the 4th floor, where it all started. As I read how the Nazi's came to power and all the things that happened, watched some clips and looked at the things that they gathered from the Jews, I just could not believe the cruelty and the inhumane treatment that they endured. I was at a loss for words and most of the time I was overwhelmed with a deep feeling of sadness and incredulity. It made me angry to read that alot of people did nothing - they were indifferent bystanders. Even the United States and other countries took a very long time in responding to the tragedy and after several years finally allowed some to migrate here... but they only filled the quota for immigration and did not allow all who wanted to come to come. I couldn't take it all.. I was crying all the way down from the 4th floor, to the 3rd to the 2nd floor. I think I really lost it when I walked into the room where they had all the shoes collected from the concentration camps and the personal belongings like hair brushes, scissors, mirrors, etc. They even showed how they shaved them and then bundled the hair and sold them to make wigs and stuffing for beds, etc. It was very disturbing.

But there are always the courageous people who show compassion and kindness, even if they put their own life and their family's life at risk. I am so thankful for these people... those who sheltered and hid the Jews and helped them escape. They had a whole wall of their names, some with pictures. Although there were so many of them, they could not rival the number of Jews who died during this time. One name stood out for me... John Weidner, a Dutchman who helped establish the Dutch-Paris underground, an escape route which ran lines from the Netherlands to Belgium to France to Spain. He was credited to saving more than 800 Jews and over 100 allied airmen. He was tortured twice by the Nazis and one of his sisters was captured and killed by the Nazis. Yet, he continued to help the Jews. Later on, he moved to the US, where he lived until he died in 1994. Do you know why he stood out to me? It was because he was a Seventh-day Adventist.. and said so on his bio. It made me wonder how many Adventists in Germany, Poland, USSR and other countries helped Jews as well? Or were they indifferent bystanders like so many others.

On the 2nd floor, they have a wall of remembrance. On one of the walls, it was written: "Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your hear as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them". Deuteronomy 4:9 Wow. DO NOT FORGET. We have already witnessed so many atrocities in our lifetime, in our world history. So many genocides. After you leave this room, before you go down to the first floor, they have a room that says" Move into ACTION". We think that the genocide of Rwanda in the '90s is done and over with. Today, there are still people facing death, for no other reason than some one else thinks they are inferior. In Sudan's Darfur region, this atrocity is still happening. What are we doing about it? Why are we not not stopping this? How can we be indifferent bystanders? I was behooved to realize that I did not too much about it. There are things we can do... we can donate money; educate ourselves about genocide; get involved in our communities; join the museum's community of conscience and find out which areas are at risk for genocide; tell your family and your children about it and why we need to stop it; support education and relief efforts. Please, if you have a holocaust museum close to you, visit it and remind yourself why we must respect and treat each other equally. No one should have to go through what the Jews, the Rwandans, the Armenians, the African Americans, Cambodia, and the people in Darfur are going through. I know i did not mention all the other people/nations that also suffered these tragedies, but I think you know what i mean. Please, get involved. Let us not let ourselves be known as a generation that stood by and watched this horror with indifference.

I had to sit in the memorial hall for a long while, trying to calm down. Afterwards, I decided to walk and walk I did. I walked to the Jefferson Memorial ("oh, it's not so far, Miss", the guard said, "probably 10 mins at the most). Yes, 10 mins to this side of the river... more like 30 mins for me coz I couldn't walk fast and you have to go around the Tidal Basin to get to Thomas Jefferson. But it was worth it. So, I thought, why not visit Mr. Lincoln? After all, he is also from Illinois. So I asked the guard again how far it was to walk there... "No far at all, follow the path, up the bridge, past the baseball field and there is it. No more than 15 - 20 mins". Easy for him to say, he can walk normally. Well, just know that I do not always follow directions well. I stayed close to the water and discovered Franklin Delano Roosevelt's memorial. I kept walking and realized I am not seeing Lincoln anywhere. I finally stopped to ask directions and the kind man said, "Oh it's quite aways from here, but if you follow this road, cross the street, pass the Korean War Memorial, it's just past that". Okay, so 45 mins after I left the Jefferson memorial, I saw Mr. Abraham Lincoln in all his glory, looking over the reflecting pool, straight at the Washington Memorial. I was exhausted and my feel were hurting and I just wanted to crawl to bed. But I still had to find the Metro and take 2 trains and the circulator and then I would be home. But that's another story in itself. Suffice it to say that I'm just glad I got home okay.. and the circulator passed by the place, "Just Cakes"... and it called out to me, so I got off the circulator and got some more cupcakes :-) A great day indeed. I hope you enjoyed your day as much as I enjoyed mine. Good night :-)