Always Remembering; The Holocaust Memorial Center

Holocaust Memorial Center

After 3 and a half incredible months in this amazing city it actually happened, and our last field experience was completed on Wednesday. Even though it was the last field and I knew that after I would only have about 2 weeks left here, I was still very excited for it because it was a trip to the Holocaust Memorial Center. After learning so much throughout the year about the Holocaust and specifically about how much it impacted Hungary, I thought this trip would be a great way to tie everything together. Also, since I’ve heard about the devastating things that took place, and seen pictures, movies and the actual death camps themselves, I was in the back of my mind hoping that the museum wouldn’t be too hard to handle. This of course wasn’t true and it was a very difficult thing to get through but it had to be done and I am so happy we went there.

One of the rooms in the Museum

The Holocaust Memorial Center is set up so that you walk through 8 different rooms. The rooms are not arranged chronologically however, but by different themes that were present during the Holocaust. For example, one theme was human suffering while another was centered on the loss of human dignity. I liked the way it was set up because even though it wasn’t in perfect chronological order, the different themes portrayed the Jewish population at different times and these times in turn were pretty much in order. I guess this happens because when it came to the Holocaust things just got worse with time and in the museum the themes got worse and worse with each new room. From freedom, to anti-Semitic laws, to ghettos, to everything being taken away, to the transportation to the camps and finally to life at the camps themselves, which for most was followed by death, show the progression of events that took, place. All these “themes” were present at the Center and they were presented through pictures, videos and descriptions. The tour ended in a Jewish Synagogue where they had placed glass tables all around and on each table was a face of a victim with their information, including where and when they died.

Glass with victims faces on them

I could go on and explain every traumatic thing that saw and heard but in my opinion that is not the main point of the museum. As our tour guide said, the museum was set up so that Hungary could take responsibility for what had happened. We can look around and see the devastation and human suffering that was caused by the Holocaust and this is very important to do but more importantly we need to remember that human beings let this happen. What starts out as a little idea can turn into a mass genocide, and by remembering and trying to put yourself in the shoes of these people, it will make you never want to see something like this happen ever again. Like I said before, I thought that after so much exposure, I would have become a little numb to seeing piles dead bodies, beatings and human suffering but what I have learned is that I will never be able to become completely numb. I think this is because you could study the Holocaust for years and years and could avoid hearing the same person’s story twice; six million Jewish  people were killed, thousands of people carried out the actions and the world watched. Almost everyone has their own story and this is the reason that every time I think about it or see pictures I feel sick to my stomach because it reminds you how many people died and how many people let it happen. Places like the Holocaust Memorial Center are great examples of remembering what happened while at the same time honoring those who lost their lives. 

Picture I took at Birkenau Death Camp that is a gift from the United States. It says "Forever let this place be a cry of despair and a warning to humanity where the Nazis murdered about one and a half million men, women and children mainly Jews from various countries around Europe"

Picture from Auschwitz. Never forget what happened and hopefully something this horrible will never be allowed to happen again.

See you in a week America!