The author’s husband, Hal Marzell, at the United States Memorial Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC.
Many teachers include Holocaust education is a part of their educational curriculum. There are many ways to incorporate lessons about the Holocaust into a lesson plan, but one of the best would be a visit to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum located in Washington, DC.
My husband and I recently spent an entire day exploring this extensive museum. The institution holds a collection of more than 12,750 artifacts; 49 million pages of archival documents; 85,000 historical photographs; a list of over 200,000 registered survivors and their families; 1,000 hours of archival footage; 93,000 library items; and 9,000 oral history testimonies.
When your students enter the permanent exhibit, they will be given an identification card which tells the story of a random victim or survivor of the Holocaust. When they exit the elevators on the fourth floor, they will walk through a chronological depiction of the history of the Holocaust. The depiction starts with the Nazi rise to power led by Adolf Hitler, and additional exhibits explore the topics of Aryan ideology, Kristallnacht, Anti-Semitism, and the American response to Nazi Germany. More exhibits explore Jewish ghettos, the Final Solution, and the liberation of the concentration camps, among other topics. The exhibits conclude with videotaped survivor testimony.
One of the most moving places in the museum,in my opinion, is the Hall of Remembrance. This hall is the USHMM’s official memorial to the victims and survivors of the Holocaust. Here visitors can memorialize the event by lighting a candle, visiting an eternal flame, and reflecting in silence in the brightly lit hexagon-shaped space.
To regulate the number of visitors occupying the space at one time, it is recommended that visitors obtain admission tickets in advance. Tickets are distributed outside the museum beginning at 9:45 am for visits at specified times throughout the day. The museum is open every day except Yom Kippur and Christmas Day. Admission is free.
To learn more about this museum, you and you students can click on the link USHMM.
