Below are the reflections of one high-school senior from a trip to the Holocaust Museum. Other essays are arranged by year.
Millions of people died during the Holocaust through no fault of their own. They were thought of as an inferior people, as not being part of the “master plan." These people were harassed, beaten, and murdered. Many of these people were Jewish. Hitler had a real hate for the Jewish people, and maybe it was a secret fear, but he did the most damage to people of Jewish faith.
I think it is very important for people to learn about the Holocaust and its many tragedies and dark secrets. I believe that the Holocaust Memorial Museum is one of the best ways to see first hand the horrific events that took place because of one man’s twisted dream of world domination.
I was truly overwhelmed at what I saw in the museum, and I can’t begin to imagine what it was like for the people who had to live through it. One thing that really pulled at my heart in particular was the identification card given to me just before entering the elevator to the fourth floor. It chronicled the life of Sara Galperin. There is a picture of her on the first page, and to me that made it more real when you can identify a face along with the story. She was normal person with a normal job running a dairy store. She was married and had three children. In 1943, Sara’s husband gave her his Jewish star so she could leave the ghetto the Germans had put them in and go to work in a nearby factory. That was the last time Sara ever saw her husband. When she returned from work her husband had already been deported. In 1945, after being liberated by the Soviets Sara learned that her husband had been gassed at Auschwitz.
This is only one of many moving stories about the Holocaust. Other stories are just as sad and some are even sickening. Watching the films on the medical experiments done on prisoners made me cringe. I knew terrible things were done to prisoners in the concentration camps, but I never knew to what extent how bad it really was.
Hitler not only robbed the Jews of their homes, synagogues, and possessions, but he also robbed them of their freedom, most of them of their spirit, and all of them of their dignity. He tattooed them with a number, which took away their identity as a human being. I feel that this was such an injustice to the Jewish people who didn’t believe in putting permanent markings on their body. It is so very hard for me to imagine what it would be like for someone to take away my freedom. Frankly, it appalls me that one man thought he could choose who had freedom and who didn’t, and who lived and who died. I believe that that is only for G-d to decide.
Hitler tried, and very often succeeded, to break the spirits of those who entered into the concentration camps. “Arbeit Macht Frei”, was his slogan. But the harder they worked the more work they were given to do. I felt that this was an incredibly cruel thing to do.
Another item, or two, which brought on an incredibly overwhelming feeling were the beds, bowls ,and clothes used by real people from the concentration camps. Seeing these items and knowing that the Holocaust was so very real made me feel almost guilty that my life has been so pleasant and sheltered. I think that a lot of people don’t know how well their lives had been, and this museum truly makes you think about how wonderful your life is right now.
Something I found very inspiring was the wall of people who tried to help the Jews. For instance, one of the names was Oscar Schindler. It made me feel rather pleased to know that there were indeed good-hearted people doing the right thing in a time of crisis. With so many graphic and at times depressing scenes, it was almost like a point of rest where I could take a minute to digest everything else I saw and prepare to move on.
There was one thing that greatly puzzled and somewhat annoyed me, and that was “why didn’t anyone speak out against Hitler and his war crimes sooner?” I know everyone must have been terrified, but I can’t help thinking that some of this could have been prevented. When I looked at the display on the crematoriums I was shocked at how dehumanizing it was first of all to gas all of those Jewish people, but then to burn their bodies in mass groups to destroy evidence of what was really going on. They never had a proper burial, they were just burned like trash and their ashes discarded. If eel that that is an inconceivably vulgar act.
All of the items, which are direct artifacts of the Holocaust, like the boxcar, made everything very realistic for me. It was so real to me that I almost couldn’t believe that something as awful as the Holocaust had taken place ever, let alone within the past one hundred years. The sad thing is that the killing of the Jews was systematic and most of the Nazis never thought twice about what they were doing. I would never want to be on the receiving end of their system, but I also know I would never want to be on the giving end either.
One of my favorite things about the museum is the eternal flame at the very end. I think it serves as a remembrance and a warning to all that we can never let something so destructive and ghastly happen again. “For the dead and the living we must bear witness."
E.C.