Third Posting

Wow, I've never visited a holocaust museum until today, and the experience pierced deeper than what I expected. Yes, I've heard and studied about the Holocaust, but the museum had a way of making the experience personal. The pictures of all the children murdered during the even hit me personally. They were obviously objects in a conflict which did not concern them whatsoever. They had no control over themselves, and followed their parents and government in everything they did. It is terrible, knowing how helpless they were.

The Jewish adults, although objects of their environment, had partial control over their fate, at least some of them did. Many Jews, the Bielski brothers were emphasized in this museum, fought against the Germans. To a certain extent, they had control over their destinies. The museum emphasized that the resistance fighters were subjective to the war, but they were not objective about all the people in the camps.

The difference between the two museums we visited is the point of the museums. The existence of the military museum is for a more hands on approach of learning. It felt more educational than the holocaust museum. It did not trigger emotions as explosive as the Holocaust museum. The displays showed the equipment we used to kill a faceless enemy. In this way, the museum felt patriotic. Look what we made, and kicked everyone's ass with. The Holocaust museum was more of a memorial. It was a way to remember the dead. Yes, it did have an educational purpose to it, but it had a more forboding purpose to it. The Holocaust museum was sending out a message to all the visitors: Don't let this happen again.