A Four-Year Old and the Holocaust Museum

So in my most recent trip to Washington, D.C. I visited multiple Museums. It’s the great thing about going to Washington, D.C. History everywhere in the Smithsonian Institutions via museums and art galleries. Additionally, most of these are free. However, KNOW YOUR MUSEUMS!

So here is the story. I am not a history buff. In fact, I had to beg a History professor in college to pass me in order to get my degree (True story). But of all the “things” in history, I was always mesmerized by War World II and anything related to the Holocaust. Therefore, the Holocaust Museum was on my agenda. In reality, it was the first museum that I went to on my first morning in D.C. This museum is amazing, moving, educational, beautiful and extremely well done. You enter the museum, make your way to the elevator and are taken to the top floor of this four-story building. You are walking through this museum in order and through history (Which I think is brilliant). With that being said, you are walking with the “group” that you end up in the elevator with and/or meet once you exit the elevator.

One of the things I learned very quickly was that this was a museum filled with a lot of material that must be read. I will make future note to always bring my eye-patch. (I suffer from Ocular Histoplasmosis.) I began the journey. Reading material. Looking at, sometimes, graphic information. Seeing actual items returned from the concentration camps. It was moving and emotional. Tears were flowing.

Along my journey and in my “group” was this couple that had a little boy that I would guess was four years old.

(Please note the next section of this post is meant as humorous…. If you have a four-year old child and you’re planning a trip to DC… I’m kidding… I’m laughing while typing this…. Don’t be sensitive… Don’t get offended.)

This little boy was nowhere near interested in ANYTHING in this museum. At first, he was taken out of the stroller and climbing on things and playing. (I would like to reiterate the content of this museum does not suggest climbing and playing.) Of course, none of us were bothered by this at first. We just continued our walk. Sometimes we would go ahead of the four-year old, sometimes the four-year old would pass us. But for some reason, we were all aware of the four-year old. About mid-range through this museum and exhibits, the four-year old was tired of the dark emotional content of this museum and his expressions changed from “climbing and playing” to crying. Oh what joy!

Let me just say this! Even though I do not have children, I am VERY understanding of children and their needs. I have four beautiful nieces that I have taken care of for YEARS. Here is the thing I wanted to say so badly to this couple. “Why in the world would you bring your four-year old child to the Holocaust Museum?” “What made you think, he will enjoy this?” “You do know there are AIRPLANES HANGING FROM THE CEILING of the Air and Space Museum?” “Bert and Ernie are at the National Museum of American History.”

Luckily, the couple moved fairly quickly ahead of us and I assume out of the building. I was glad to have my focus back because I made it to the room that was showing the Survivor Videos. I spent a lot of time here, watching and hearing the interviews of those that survived. I had a need for the Starbucks’s napkins in my pocket at this point.

For the dead and the living we must bear witness. Elie Wiesel 

Note: Know Your Audience! AND No children were harmed at the Holocaust Museum in March 2017.

Lesson: Just because it’s free doesn’t mean it’s necessary.