# Visiting the Holocaust Museum--Any suggestions? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 2, 2007, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visiting-the-holocaust-museum-any-suggestions/394296 "2007-03-02T13:34:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![phall0106](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phall0106/32/5934_2.png) [@phall0106](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phall0106)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visiting-the-holocaust-museum-any-suggestions/394296/1 "2007-03-02T13:34:22Z")
Hallboy is coving the Holocaust in school (7th grade). They’ve read The Diary of Anne Frank, and he’d been gradually doing more and more research on Hitler, but I sense a disconnect and a direct lack of understanding on his part. I don’t think he’s really grasping what happened. (in a literal sense, yes. in an emotional sense, no.) So, we’re making a visit tomorrow to the National Holocaust Museum in Washington DC. Hallgirl1 went there during her high school years and I know from her experience that we will not physically or emotionally be able to get through the entire museum in one day. However, I’m not sure what to expect. Anyone have any suggestions? Has anyone else taken their 13 year old son to visit the museum? And, yes, I’ll be bringing lots of tissues. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visiting-the-holocaust-museum-any-suggestions/394296/2 "2007-03-02T14:01:44Z")
Don’t wear your David Irving t-shirt. ---
**Author:** ![hawthorne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visiting-the-holocaust-museum-any-suggestions/394296/3 "2007-03-02T15:49:23Z")
> [@](#): > > _phall0106_ > I don’t think he’s really grasping what happened. (in a literal sense, yes. in an emotional sense, no.) It’s a view of the abyss. Don’t expect your kid to feel more than he can understand. Expect him to be taken aback by your shock at something he knows you know is there. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visiting-the-holocaust-museum-any-suggestions/394296/4 "2007-03-02T16:11:57Z")
[Obligatory Onion Link](http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28566) Joe ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visiting-the-holocaust-museum-any-suggestions/394296/5 "2007-03-02T16:14:58Z")
[QUOTE=Jackmannii] Don’t wear your David Irving t-shirt. [/QUOTE] Also, don’t dance around singing “Hava Nagila.” ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visiting-the-holocaust-museum-any-suggestions/394296/6 "2007-03-02T16:37:19Z")
A few years back, I took two of my three kids on a Saturday morning. They were probably 15 and 12 at the time. We got there about 30 minutes before opening. Stood in line outside, but got in the first group. I was amazed at how crowded it was going through the place. I, of course, wanted to stand, linger, and read each exhibit, but they didn’t have the patience. That was a bit of a logistics problem in staying somewhat together. And, did I say it was crowded? If memory serves me correctly, it was also at this time of the year. So, there weren’t tons of tourist in town just yet. My dad lived in the area, so he dropped up off just outside. We rode the subway back to Arlington. My memory is that there was no line when we came out some 2-3 hours later. But don’t depend on my memory. I don’t think it will really take you two days to see it, except that you bring up the emotional side. That might make it hard. Certainly well-worth seeing. You can read about things like this, but seeing the pictures, etc. boggles the mind. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visiting-the-holocaust-museum-any-suggestions/394296/7 "2007-03-02T17:01:44Z")
Here are a couple of posts I made in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=7143602&highlight=holocaust+museum#post7143602) describing my experiences at the Holocaust Museum: > [@Lissa](#): > > The Holocaust museum is an incredible experience, but if you go, be prepared to be a little shaken up for the rest of the day. > > The first time I went, I was unprepared for what I would see, what it would be like. The second time I went, I spent an equal amount of time watching the crowd’s reation as I did looking at the exhibits. > > You should get your tickets in the morning-- you can’t just walk on in. Go at about nine AM and get a ticket for a later tour time. If you wait until past noon, the tickets might all be gone. > > After you hand over your ticket, you’re given the passport of a Holocaust victim with the story of what happened to them inside. You climb onto an elevator for the ride up to the first exhibit floor. (The museum is designed like a chimney and its confusing, winding layout is intentional.) > > As I rode up in the elevator both times, the folks inside were chatting quietly, laughing softly. After the doors opened, that noise was cut off as if by an axe. They were stunned. The first thing you see is a giant, horrible mural of a ditch full of rotting bodies. It’s meant to represent the American soldiers who found the camps and the shock they felt at the first sight of hell on earth. > > As you go through, you will see thousands and thousands of artifacts beginning from the time before the Holocaust when there was a systematic effort to dehumanize and degrade Jews through books, film and even childrens’ texts. You see the slow, horrifying build up and then the life in the camps. (Including a cannister of Zyklon B tablets.) You see a pile of shoes that were seized from the people before they went into the gas chambers and stockpiled for re-use. (Seeing those shoes is hideously personalizing. Individual taste in styles, stains inside where a foot sweated against the leather . . .) You walk through a glass tunnel carved with hundreds of names-- each is a town of village completly wiped from the map by the Nazi campaign. You will see, and be able to enter, a boxcar which transported those poor people to their doom. > > Both times I’ve gone, I’ve wept. Both times I went, I spent the rest of the day thinking about man’s inhumanity toward man. I’m glad I went but it’s incredibly emotional. > > \ > > It’s a very well-designed museum. The exhibits are visually stimulating and well laid-out. (The floorplan spirals you upwards like a puff of smoke.) The interpretive information is clear, concise and detailed. In other words, they know when just a word or two conveys the enormity of the horror more than a paragraph would. The interractive exhibits can be unsettling in their ability to bring you into the experience. The flow is never interrupted, but the way the exhibits are presented constantly changes. (You don’t just see an endless bank of cases, in other words.) > > Just as a museum itself, I would give it a solid 10 rating. In some ways, I like it better than the Smithsonian. > > From the visitor perspective, I say that it’s one of my favorites. I know it’s odd to say that, considering the subject matter, but no museum has ever moved me the way that this one did. > > The difference lies a lot in the design of the whole structure. Many museums are crammed into buildings designed for another purpose. This one was designed to be an experience. > > The facade of the building is looming and oppressive with a vague industrial feel. Inside, the walls are smooth white marble, cold and hard-looking. Nothing relieves the starkness. Once you take the elevator to the first exhibit floor, you’re instantly slammed with the sight of what all this really boils down to-- death and horror. Sometimes, it’s easy to distance yourself from events which happened in the past, but this museum doesn’t allow that. If you can find it, _Smithsonian_ magazine did an incredible review of the museum when it first opened that I highly recommend. ---
**Author:** ![phall0106](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phall0106/32/5934_2.png) [@phall0106](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phall0106)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visiting-the-holocaust-museum-any-suggestions/394296/8 "2007-03-02T17:10:51Z")
Should parking be a problem on a Saturday? ---
**Author:** ![Valgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visiting-the-holocaust-museum-any-suggestions/394296/9 "2007-03-02T17:22:27Z")
I went a few years ago when I was in town for my uncle’s wedding. Extremely powerful, for me the most moving part was reading all of the tiles that other grade school kids have painted for the walls - very similar to looking at what people leave at the Vietnam memorial. Reading what kids their own age have had to say about the Holocaust may make a much more powerful impression than some of the other exhibits. I would recommend stopping by the back of the museum where there is a big bronze plaque with a quote from General MacArthur (?) predicting that decades from “now” (the end of WW2) there will be people trying to say that the camps didn’t exist and the Holocaust never happened and that we should all beware of that. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visiting-the-holocaust-museum-any-suggestions/394296/10 "2007-03-02T17:59:00Z")
We didn’t get the chance to see the Holocaust Museum when we were in DC (on account of ticket availability). It’s on our list of just a couple things we want to see on our next visit. But the people I know who’ve seen it said that no matter how much you know about the holocaust, this museum has a very moving, sobering effect on everyone who visits. As for the kid, I’d say that depends on the kid himself. Some kids are very emotional and in tune with other people’s pain; other kids need to have a little more life experience under their belt before they can grasp the enormity of it all. It may not be the “best” time to take him, but it certainly wouldn’t be a waste. ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visiting-the-holocaust-museum-any-suggestions/394296/11 "2007-03-02T18:06:46Z")
[QUOTE=phall0106] Should parking be a problem on a Saturday? [/QUOTE] Yes. Don’t count on finding parking near to the National Mall on a Saturday unless you go into a parking garage and pay way too much. I like to park at the Metro (we go to Greenbelt) and take it down to Smithsonian (this is after a transfer at L’Enfant Plaza). The Holocaust Museum is to your right as you exit the Smithsonian Station, which is on the National Mall between the Washington Monument and the Capital. My visit to the Holocaust museum made me cry, a lot. At the time we were there (November 2003), there was a (temporary?) display on children in hiding. I also enjoyed the Hall of Remembrance. It is a very moving experience. I will be going back with my 13-year-old this year when my parents are visiting from Canada. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visiting-the-holocaust-museum-any-suggestions/394296/12 "2007-03-02T18:17:09Z")
[QUOTE=phall0106] Should parking be a problem on a Saturday? [/QUOTE] I’ll defer to Ginger on this. Have you already got tickets? I think we did this on-line the day before or earlier. ---
**Author:** ![phall0106](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phall0106/32/5934_2.png) [@phall0106](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phall0106)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visiting-the-holocaust-museum-any-suggestions/394296/13 "2007-03-02T18:30:27Z")
**Ginger,** Could you please explain in English what this means? 🙂 I’d like to find the best place to park, even if it means parking then taking the Metro (?) into the city. Does it cost to park, and how in the world do I find someplace to park in a situation like that? ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visiting-the-holocaust-museum-any-suggestions/394296/14 "2007-03-02T19:06:34Z")
Okay… parking at the Metro station will cost you but not a lot. You will need to purchase a metro card for the parking lot, specifically. I don’t remember what it’s called, but it’ll be $10.00 and $5.00 of that will go toward metro fare. Parking downtown DC is going to cost you your firstborn. Greenbelt Metro station is easy to find; if you’re taking 95, you’ll take the left-hand choice (NOT Silver Spring - Dave says he thinks it’s called College Park) as it splits into I-495 (Capital Beltway) and there are signs all over the place. The metro will cost ~$6 per person round-trip from Greenbelt to Smithsonian. Greenbelt is on the Green Line, and Smithsonian is on blue and orange. You take Green Line (it only goes one direction from there) to L’Enfant Plaza station, then get on Orange to Vienna or Blue to Franconia/Springfield (that’s their terminus station name, that’s the direction you need to go). You will then exit at Smithsonian station. Go to [www.wmata.com](http://www.wmata.com) and you’ll see a detailed map; you’ll also see maps everywhere on the trains and at the stations, and there is a person working at the Greenbelt station who will help you navigate. Locals can also help you if you need it. Once you have arrived at Smithsonian station, look toward the Capital building and turn to your right and that will take you to the Holocaust museum, which is a block away, on 14th street. ---
**Author:** ![Cowboy8467](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b5e925/32.png) [@Cowboy8467](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cowboy8467)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visiting-the-holocaust-museum-any-suggestions/394296/15 "2007-03-02T19:10:16Z")
[QUOTE=phall0106] **Ginger,** Could you please explain in English what this means? 🙂 I’d like to find the best place to park, even if it means parking then taking the Metro (?) into the city. Does it cost to park, and how in the world do I find someplace to park in a situation like that? [/QUOTE] Your best bet would be to park at one of the outlying metro station and take the train on in. Be warned however that the Metro parking lots recently stopped accepting cash for payment, and only used a plastic reusable card called a Smartrip card, which is also used for the metro. It doesn’t really seem to make sense to make tourists use them because they cost $5 initially on top of whatever amount you put on them, and you have to have $5 on them initially, so it’ll cost you $10. I’ve never parked in a metro lot since I’m in the city but I’ve heard the rates are pretty reasonable. I’ll echo what other posters have said and will tell you not to try and find parking downtown on a Saturday. ETA: I see that Ginger has already addressed most of this ---
**Author:** ![phall0106](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phall0106/32/5934_2.png) [@phall0106](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phall0106)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visiting-the-holocaust-museum-any-suggestions/394296/16 "2007-03-02T19:10:47Z")
[QUOTE=GingerOfTheNorth] Okay… parking at the Metro station will cost you but not a lot. You will need to purchase a metro card for the parking lot, specifically. I don’t remember what it’s called, but it’ll be $10.00 and $5.00 of that will go toward metro fare. Parking downtown DC is going to cost you your firstborn. Greenbelt Metro station is easy to find; if you’re taking 95, you’ll take the left-hand choice (NOT Silver Spring - Dave says he thinks it’s called College Park) as it splits into I-495 (Capital Beltway) and there are signs all over the place. The metro will cost ~$6 per person round-trip from Greenbelt to Smithsonian. Greenbelt is on the Green Line, and Smithsonian is on blue and orange. You take Green Line (it only goes one direction from there) to L’Enfant Plaza station, then get on Orange to Vienna or Blue to Franconia/Springfield (that’s their terminus station name, that’s the direction you need to go). You will then exit at Smithsonian station. Go to [www.wmata.com](http://www.wmata.com) and you’ll see a detailed map; you’ll also see maps everywhere on the trains and at the stations, and there is a person working at the Greenbelt station who will help you navigate. Locals can also help you if you need it. Once you have arrived at Smithsonian station, look toward the Capital building and turn to your right and that will take you to the Holocaust museum, which is a block away, on 14th street. [/QUOTE] Thanks, **Ginger**! Your directions are a whole lot easier than the ones I was looking at on the wmata website. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visiting-the-holocaust-museum-any-suggestions/394296/17 "2007-03-02T19:15:11Z")
Don’t take your kids there unless you know they’re old enough to appreciate what’s going on. I was appalled by the number of very young (~5 yr. old) kids I saw at the museum, who were seeing horrifying things without any ability to understand the context. I really think the museum should only admit people 12 and older. ---
**Author:** ![Cowboy8467](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b5e925/32.png) [@Cowboy8467](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cowboy8467)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visiting-the-holocaust-museum-any-suggestions/394296/18 "2007-03-02T19:17:19Z")
[QUOTE=Larry Borgia] Don’t take your kids there unless you know they’re old enough to appreciate what’s going on. I was appalled by the number of very young (~5 yr. old) kids I saw at the museum, who were seeing horrifying things without any ability to understand the context. I really think the museum should only admit people 12 and older. [/QUOTE] It’s been a number of years since I’ve been there but I seem to recall that on the first floor there was an exhibition specifically for children called Daniel’s Story, which while I don’t remember the specifics, seemed to be very effective at teaching younger children about the holocaust without going into too graphic detail. I think there are also warning signs posted before entering some of the more graphic exhibitions that state that children under 12 are not recommended to view the material, but it is at the parents discretion ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visiting-the-holocaust-museum-any-suggestions/394296/19 "2007-03-02T19:32:18Z")
since **Hallboy** is about 13 or so, this shouldn’t be a problem for the OP. ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visiting-the-holocaust-museum-any-suggestions/394296/20 "2007-03-02T20:36:36Z")
I really thought the museum was beautifully done. I’m not a 13 year old boy, nor have I ever been one, but I think that if your son is able to absorb what he’s seeing- even just a little- it will make an impact on him. I would just make sure he knows about some of the things he’s going to see, so they make more sense. For instance, they have a cattle car that you walk through. It’s dark, smelly, cold. Just awful. If he understands the significance of why that’s important, I don’t see how it wouldn’t make a tremendous impact. Or there’s also a room of shoes with a very poignant quote. That’s another thing that might make the connection for him. The thing that really gave me pause was this huge, vaulted room that was just filled with pictures of people that were killed (from happier times). I can honestly say that’s the spot that made me cry. Women, children, families, soldiers, doctors, everyone was accounted for. I’m not sure how you wouldn’t be able to get through the entire museum in a day. Unless I missed something, even with moseying back and forth to look at things and taking your time, I can’t imagine it taking more than a few hours. It’s certainly taxing, but the museum itself has a great layout that really makes it flow. One of the most well done museums I’ve been to, actually. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visiting-the-holocaust-museum-any-suggestions/394296.md?page=2)