United States Holocaust Museum

Next we got our car out of the garage and drove over to the Holocaust Museum.  We ate our lunch in the park and then walked across the street and into the museum.  

First thing we picked up an identity card that had the story of a real person, and then we went through the history of the Holocaust, starting from the economical and political environment in the 1930s and how Adolf Hitler came into power.  Then we learned how and why Hitler developed his "Final Solution" and how he implemented it--first publishing stories about how Jews were abusing other Germans with their shops and successful businesses, calling for a boycott of Jewish businesses, and then identifying Jews with stars sewn on their clothing.  Next he began to round up all Jews and send them to Ghettos which were sections of the city which were then walled up and barricaded so that other Germans could not go in and the Jews could not leave.  Eventually German soldiers began to put Jews on trains and send them to work camps.  Things just got worse and worse for Jewish people.

We saw many short movies or photo essays of protests about Jews and the burning of synagogues, and long lines of Jewish people being herded onto rail cars.  We walked through an actual rail car to see how small it was for 100 people.  There was a very moving video of real  people who had survived the concentration camps and their memories of the camps and their lives there.  There were some photos of the liberation and some of the people were as skinny as a skeleton with skin on it.  It was very sobering.

At the end we went through Daniel's Room, which tells the story of a 10 year old boy.  The story is told by way of pages from his diary.  First we started at his house and he told of how his father's bakery was damaged, and then how his mother had to sew stars on their clothes, and then how they had to leave their nice house.  The next room was the room Daniel's family was assigned in the ghetto.  They only had one loaf of bread and a turnip to eat for the week and their room was dark and sad compared to their house they had to leave.  But then things got worse as they were separated and sent to different camps.   This part of the museum gave us a real idea of what it was like for a kid our own age.

We all left the museum with our sad thoughts about this period in history and about how we must never forget. When we got home Grandpa said no tv.  He wanted us to think about what we had learned.

 Parking is very hard to find in Washington DC and this is what Grandpa saw as he was approaching our car after touring the Museum. It was only one car away from being towed.  We had overstayed the parking limit by 20 minutes.

Sloppy Joes and Jello for dinner and then we played a bit before showers and bed.  GG collected all of our clothes for the last time and put them in the wash.  She has a collection of odd socks and unclaimed socks and is hoping that the mates will show up and one of the boys will claim them again.  A few pieces of clothing are missing and GG speculates that some of these things may have been left under the bed at the hotel in Williamsburg.  Oh, well.  And,another note about clothes--she hates Aidan's orange outfit which seems to be his fav, and thinks that Bryce's gray muscle shirt looks punkier that any other outfit.  On the positive side--Chayton and Aidan have some really nice plaid shorts.  Just an editorial comment.  She loves them all in any clothing.