By: Lynne Brewer

From 1933 to 1945 the world went through a depressing time know as the Holocaust.  Hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives due to Adolf Hitler and his army.  On March 31st I had the opportunity to take a tour of the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. to learn about this horrific event.  I got to learn about the housing, sanitariness, gas chambers, marches, and the burning of the books.

Housing was one of the first things I learned about.  There were ghettos and concentration camps.  In large rooms there were many three tier beds.  They did not have real mattresses.  Thin layers of straw were laid on the boards.  Between six and eight people would sleep on a single bunk with one blanket or no blanket at all.

The concentration camps were not very clean. There were specific concentration camps for women and children only.  When the women and children arrived at the camp their hair would be shaved off.  By shaving off the hair, lice would not be spread around.  Also the hair would not have to be washed allowing the women to go long periods of time without taking showers or baths.  There was also little water given to the women.  During breakfast the women would get a small amount of coffee.  The women would then use that coffee to wash their hands and to rinse their face off since they did not have any water.  The women and children also did not get new clothes for weeks or months, leaving them to constantly live in dirty, disgusting clothes.

Gas chambers were also a big part of concentration camps.  When people arrived at the camps some of them would be taken into underground rooms.  The people were told that they were going to be getting showers.  When in the big underground room everyone would take their clothes off and then be moved into a different room.  The different room was the gas chamber.  Once the room was filled with people the doors were shut and sealed and the gas was released into the room.  After twenty minutes the doors were opened up and the bodies were taken out to be burned or buried.

Marches were also another important part of the Holocaust.  There were many death marches where prisoners would walk until everyone or almost everyone died.  Gerda Weissmann Klein was a little girl that was lucky enough to survived a death march.  Her mother told her to wear her winter boots to the concentration camp even though it was summer.  Since Gerda wore her winter boots she did not get frostbite on her toes during the death marches held in winter.  Many other children had sandals on which caused them to get frostbite and lose toes or possibly even their feet.

The burning of the books was also very important.  The German Student Association planned to have the Jewish books burned on May 10, 1933.  Books that Jewish authors wrote or any “Un-German” books were burned.  The people believed that by burning the books they would also be burning the people.

Going to the Holocaust Museum allowed me to learn new things and also broadened my knowledge about things I already knew.  It was hard to see some of the pictures of the innocent people.  I got to learn about the housing, sanitariness, gas chambers, marches, and the burning of the books.  The Holocaust Museum was an amazing experience that I hope I can experience again some day in the future.