As I am again in Washington DC outskirts, I felt it appropriate to visit the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. What a day... four hours passed in a moment, and then I was outside in the air and sun again. For four hours, I didn't think about eating, or even drinking - nothing is allowed there, so my normal water-bottle companion was left behind. Once inside, my thoughts were entirely absorbed by the exhibits.
It is a monumental display and I was moved to tears many times, despite a grim determination to stay calm. Film footage of the British going into Bergen-Belsen, and the 10,000 unburied bodies they had to quickly deal with was harrowing. All naked and SO thin - being dragged to huge burial pits by their former SS guards, in order to reduce the outbreak of disease.
Odd how small things hit you hard - I watched a lady who survived describing liberation day. An American soldier asked what he could do for her. She requested sugar and long socks, as she was so cold, despite the warm May weather. When he returned, she poured the sugar into her mouth and then cried as she put the socks on and discovered they could not stay up - she had no calf muscles left, just skin over her bones. He then held the door open for her, and this gesture of normality had a huge impact - she had forgotten this was how human beings could behave.
A profoundly thought-provoking experience... There is an exhibit devoted to Darfur and how it is all happening again. Why is man-kind so un-kind?
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