This is from Vanessa ~ I had mixed feelings about going to the museum because these kinds of things really anger me, so much that it usually affects me for the whole day. It's so bad that I refuse to see the movie "Schindler's List." But we decided to go and check it out. I'm glad I did because it turned out to be very educational. It helped that the displays were not as graphic as I've seen in the past. I learned a lot about the holocaust that I did not know such as the fact that the victims were not only Jews but also included Jehovah Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists, Gypsies, people with disabilities, homosexuals, thieves, political dissidents (a person that disagrees) and pretty much anybody that the Germans thought were not part of the "perfect race." It's very sad to know that human beings can be capable to do such things to their fellow humans. I must admit I got angry but the experience helped me to see other aspects of the event that I was not aware of.
The most impacting part for me was the opportunity to crawl through a tunnel built under a well that lead to a basement-like room. The tunnel was about 3ft wide by 3ft high by 15ft long and the room was about 7ft wide, 7ft in length and 3ft high. If I remember correctly, there were about 9 adults, which included a pregnant woman, and 3 children. The room was dark, stuffy, infested with rats and their droppings and all you could hear was the sound of footsteps right above the room. I sat there and tried to place myself in that moment and the anxiety of thinking, "Oh my God, have they found us?" was so overwhelming. My experience only lasted minutes, could you imagine spending hours, days, months or even years in this condition?!?! Thank God for those that were willing to help these individuals, as limited as they were, they put their lives as well as the lives of their families on the line for the sake of "doing the right thing." It's things like this that make me analyze my lifestyle to try and determine if I am doing the "right thing" with my fellow humans. Am I doing the right thing with my fellow humans spiritually, emotionally, financially, mentally, etc. We may see victims around us and yet we refuse to extend a helping hand. As you can tell, it was a pretty amazing day!
This is from Ralph~ I have never been to a Holocaust Museum, so when Annie mentioned it, I thought it was a good opportunity. Vany was hesitant, but with all that we/I have read, we need to go. So off we went!
My wife went through a majority of things in the museum, so I want to focus on one statement made by a holocaust survivor, from a video we saw at the museum. She said, "It never leaves, it never gets less." Wow. 64 years have gone since the ending of the holocaust, and to this moment it never leaves, it never gets less. Their fear was that it would be forgotten. They feared that history would not remember that well over 30 million Jews (as well as other groups, from areas of class, race, and sexual preference) were placed in concentration camps and brutally tortured. When the United States armies had finally infiltrated the camps, what they saw was horiffic; men, women, and children starving to death, patients sitting in their own feces wasting away, many beaten and disfigured. Who could forget that?
Unfortunately as time passes, many of us do. So this and many other museums have been built to remember all the innocent people who were tortured and killed. Maybe we need to setup museums for the Darfur, where genocide is taking place. Vanessa is right about the ability for human destruction amongst each other. This evil that is within us has the capability of being very destructive. May we lean to the side of Jesus.
We have included some pics of the museum. May you view them and be impacted by them.
Website: http://www.va.holocaust.com
So the time has come for vacation and the packing begins. Yesterday was a very loooonnnnggg day. Packing made us realize, "WOW, RJ has much more luggage than Daddy and Mami put together!"