I told you that there were three exhibits that affected me most in this visit to the USHMM. The first was the Tower of Faces, which I talked about. The second was the railcar. I have walked through that car at least eight to nine other times and it always feels uneasy, but this time was different. I was alone at that time in the Museum and I just stood, for about ten minutes, in the car. The air kind of changes when you step in. It is also very musty and stale with age. I stood there, and I looked at the one high window which was boarded up, and I imagined how it must have felt. They had their belongings, were with family in many cases, and probably felt like they were just being relocated. But little did they know, those moments, hours, in that train were the last they would spend with their loved ones. I can't imagine the last memory I had of Kraig and the girls being crammed together in a cattlecar, like animals, breathing that stale air. I found this picture online of the inside of the car and it is just another example of how carefully these are thought out. You have to be diligent in looking, but each photograph, each exhibit, each quote, has been carefully planned. In this photograph you can see through the car to the giant photograph beyond. Wow.
The last exhibit that struck me was a new one, at least new since my last trip in November of '06. They had a glass cabinet with three shelves in it on one side of the passageway and another one just like it on the other side. The one on the left had a shelf of prayer shawls, a shelf of toothbrushes and combs, and a shelf of umbrellas. The one on the opposite side had a shelf of kitchen utensils, one of razors, and one of scissors. The explanation read that these were things that were found in the luggage at the camps. I don't know why, but the pile of spindly, aged umbrellas got me. They looked almost skeletal, for one. Secondly, as a person who does not usually remember to go places prepared (I didn't even take an umbrella to DC), I just was struck by the fact that they had NO IDEA what was happening to them. They took UMBRELLAS, for heaven's sake, to a DEATH CAMP. People don't pack kitchen utensils and scissors for trips. They pack them when they are moving away. And they sure don't take umbrellas to their executions. How utterly unprepared, how little they knew, how caught off guard they must have been... it is heartbreaking.
3 comments:
Wow.
Honestly I can't even imagine myself stepping into a cattle car. Whenever I go to D.C. and to the USHMM...I will get in one though. Why? To try to put my feet into somone else's shoes.
Mrs. Davis, you spent 10 minutes in there...but just think about staying in there with 90 others for hours, days, weeks. 10 minutes would be enough for me, I know...but days?
I think seeing the prayer shawls would make me break down. I've seen many pictures of prayer shawls just thrown together. That breaks my heart because that prayer shawl is so Biblical and has soooo much meaning to it. I have one, as you all know, and I pray with it a lot. I take great care of it and make sure it's folded together correctly and placed in it's carrying case properly. It just means a lot to me because it's Biblical, a part of the Jewish and Christian faith, from Israel, and one of my friends gave it to me. All of those prayer shawls, at one time, used to cover the heads of Jewish men. They used to be used during religious events. Now, they were just thrown to the ground, stomped on, burned (in cases) by monsters who murdered innocent people. Each prayer shawl represents a man. Each item in those cases, you were talking about Mrs. Davis, represented a least one person. To see hundreds of them is just horrific.
-Josh
I've always wondered how I'd react if I had the chance to visit a Holocaust museum like the USHMM. Part of me would be so interested and eager to be exposed to more detail and understanding of an event I'm so intrigued by... and then the other part of me would be scared and intimidated, and probably very overwhemled.
It makes me so angry, to the point of tears, to think about the complete false sense of security the Nazis wrapped the victims up in. So many lies, so many open circles... so much room for pouring in as many fake details as possible to assure these people that they would be safe. My heart splinters away just thinking about the fear and uncertainty they were plagued with; so much uncertainty that they tried as hard as they could to pack every single belonging in their possession... just in case they wouldn't be coming back.
When Hillary and I stepped into the cattle car, I think we had the same reaction/feeling. I don't remember who but one of us said how cramped it must have been and how bad it must have been from the odor of everyone around. I tried to imagine about 100 people in there. I could not even see but 20 people in there. I have no clue how so many would have fit in there. I honestly do not know what i would have done. Not knowing that the last time i would see my family and friends was in that cattle car.
The last exhibit about the brushes and razors and things also struck me. I had no clue people brought those kind of things. Also umbrellas, wow! How awful it was to think you were going to some place decent or even better but when you get there you don't even need what you bring because it was taken away. That whole part shocked me.
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