Senior Living

Last week I took a group of 40 Sr. Adults to Washington D.C. We went to visit the United State Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Museum of the Bible.

This was my 3rd time to visit the Holocaust museum in D.C., and I have been to the Holocaust museum in Israel twice.

It is difficult to describe. It is a graphic flood to the senses - a well-documented summary of the horrific level of evil and cruelty that human beings inflicted upon other human beings under the racist regime of Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany.

To consider what happened to the 11 million who were murdered, among whom were 6 million Jews (including 1.5 million children) both draws me and repels me.

I am drawn to try and fathom how another person like me in a different time and place could either be a part of genocidal mass murder or else be one of its innocent victims.

And I am repelled by the ugliness of the results of such evil darkness, only to wonder if it really could happen again in our lifetime or some future generation. Though, with the slogan, “Never Again!” we hope that this history will never repeat itself.

Upon arrival to the museum, you are given a picture ID card of a Jewish person who lived during the holocaust. There is biographical info about your person which corresponds to the years that are associated with the different year-periods on each floor.

You can try and put yourself in the shoes of your assigned person. At the end you learn whether he or she survived.

A visitor to this museum will definitely not say that is was something they enjoyed, but rather something they needed. If you are interested in going to Israel with me Dec. 27 – Jan. 5 and visit the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, please visit www.blossomingrose.orgor contact me!

Next Week: Review of Museum of the Bible