Who shall live and who shall die

Entering the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C., you can feel a cold light wind behind your neck. For once, it has nothing to do with the air conditioning. The walls are dark and the only music you can hear comes from a TV screen where the Nazi troops are singing for the glory of Adolf Hitler. An identification card has been given to you at the entrance of the main exhibition. This card tells the story of a person who lived and died during the Holocaust. This is your passport for a flashback in the 30s and 40s in Germany. From the beginning of Hitler’s rise to power until the Liberation of 1945, you are going to see the way Jews and all other minorities have been treated by the Nazis. What you will see might shock you, but it is our duty to remember what happened during the Holocaust.

Even if you are going in group to this museum, you are going to feel really alone. Some photographs are really striking and such a museum raises a lot of questions. What are the reasons that lead to this genocide? Who would you have been voted for if you were 21 in 1933? You can also ask yourself more philosophical questions about the Mankind. Even if the museum does not provide you all these answers, it helps you think about it. As an example, we can quote a citation of Anne Frank’s diary that you find in the museum:”I keep my ideals because, in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery and death”.

This museum is not a place to have fun, tough it is essential to visit it. “It is a good museum but it is not really pleasant,” says Marc White, a New-Yorker tourist in Washington D.C. for four days. “It is definitely a museum I wanted to show to my children,” continues White. You may wonder if this museum is really a place to show to your children. The answer is yes. If you don’t want your children to see the main exhibit because some photographs are too shocking for them, you can bring them to the permanent exhibit “Remember the Children: Daniel’s Story”. Thanks to this exhibition, you follow the history of the Holocaust from a child’s perspective. “This exhibit has been made for children,” explains Joey Bear, who works at the Reception Desk of the Holocaust Museum. “Daniel’s story” brings a different point of view that is very interesting even for a grown-up. At the beginning of the exhibit, we can read on Daniel’s diary that he is well-integrated in the society he lives in. He likes soccer and going to the swimming pool. He has a lot of friends. You enter the next room: Daniel’s parents have lost their shop and can’t work anymore. He has to go to another school only for Jews. A few months later, he is deported in a ghetto. He has no friends anymore and he has to work. He is doing his best to protect his sister, Erika. Daniel has survived. Erika hasn’t. Daniel cannot understand why his life has changed this way. He feels the injustice and cannot understand it. It is not fair, it is not good and he knows that. Why Jews have to be deported? Why him and his family? What did they do? Why can’t they live like the other families? Who shall live and who shall die?

Last but not least, near Daniel’s story exhibit, the nation’s memorial to Holocaust victims, the Hall of Remembrance is here to commemorate what cannot be understood.

“For the dead and the living we must bear witness,” formulated Elie Wiesel, Peace Nobel Prize 1986.