U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum

[John555]

Hi, This site is about the what Hilter did to the Jewish people in Germany.

http://www.ushmm.org/

[thermodynamic]

1. How about the US holocaust?

I mean, what Hitler did was evil but there is a larger, neglected issue. And at least Hitler's "target audiences" (Jews and homosexuals were on his A-list, but anybody who wasn't seen as "Aryan" would have been slaughtered had he won) died.

I actually find death preferable than being forced to work under cruel and oppressive conditions and live poorly in order to make someone else rich for years upon years upon years while the rest of my family were sold off the the highest bidder. (family values, indeed...) That's to empathize with the situation, that sort of atrocity has never happened to me as such. (Though the wages corporate america pays its workers while the upper management gets great pay and benefits is not much morally different.)

Native Americans, Blacks, and Asian Americans (who have their own chapter during the Railroad construction years) deserve a museum as well. A bigger one. Hitler's reign was 6 years. That's waffling wombats compared to the length and atrocity of America's holocaust.

[inthecorneroverhere]

2. You are disrespectful to the memory of the Shoah

My friend, you are probably much too young to have met anybody with a tatoo on the inside of the wrist from the Shoah.

Your post is disrespectful because it minimizes the impact of that event.

I'm not really anyone to talk, since I'm not Jewish, but I can say that one time about 20 years ago, I met a survivor of the Shoah, who, by the way, was a very progressive person politically.

[Darranar]

7. Hitler's reign was...

12 years. Get the facts straight before you criticize.

[inthecorneroverhere]

11. comment

I'm quite aware that Hitler was in power for 12 years from 1933-1945. I am also aware that Kristallnacht occurred in November 1938, and that the Holocaust began in late 1940 or early 1941.

It is completely irresponsible for anyone to say what is in the title of the reply that I criticized. It is OK to say that there may be some 1934-like conditions existing in the present day. There was no Shoa in 1934, 1935, 1936, or 1937, although there were some pogroms and numerous people imprisoned and several hundred to a few thousand killed, among them political rivals, Communists, dissidents, and others.

By analogy, people usually don't die of cancer the same day that they're diagnosed. It would be irresponsible for me to say "the US is dying of cancer' when what I actually mean is, 'The US has been diagnosed with cancer - get medical help now to cure it!'

[LynneSin]

3. I've been to the museum twice

It's a must see place to go when in DC and take plenty of tissues.

The last time I went was after Bush was selected. Watching the short film about how Hitler rose to power and the use of propaganda made the hairs on my arms rise and goosebumps form!!!

[umcwb]

5. Thats the same reaction I had.

Its terrifying to see because it becomes obvious just how easily something like that could occur here. A leader rises to power after a national crisis, get everybody whipped into a patriotic furor, things start to go downhill. Incredibly creepy.

[sybylla]

4. Thanks, John

Didn't know they had a website.

Was to the museum in 2001. It was impressive, but I was a little let down by it. I think because I had read so much about it, I was a little let down, especially when the place was so crowded that it was impossible to see some of the hidden displays. I had hoped it would be a good day to teach my children about the awful events but instead we only got to see part of it. I visited Dachau in 1980 and it had a much greater impact upon me than our museum in DC. But still, it is worthy of a visit.

[TheBigGuy]

6. Oddly enough, in Germany...

...as far as I know there is no museum specfically dealing w. the Holocaust. Dachau has been turned into an open-air museum, I think, but thats just one camp.

There is a new Jewish Museum in Berlin, but I think its mission goes beyond the Holocaust to interpet the history of the Jewish community in Germany...
http://www.jmberlin.de/

[Breezy du Nord]

8. READ "AN UNBROKEN CHAIN"

By Henry Oertelt. That is the best damn Holocaust book ever. Well, I guess I haven't read all of them, but this one was good. Read it! Now!

[Darranar]

9. Night,

by Elie Weisel, is also a great read. Short, but... amazing.

[Astarho]

10. Not just Jews

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/index.php?ModuleId=10005482

PERSECUTION OF ROMA (GYPSIES) IN PREWAR GERMANY, 1933-1939

Persecution of Roma (Gypsies) in Germany, and indeed in all of Europe, preceded the Nazi takeover of power in 1933. The police in Bavaria, Germany, maintained a central registry of Roma as early as 1899, and later established a commission to coordinate police action against Roma in Munich. In 1933, police in Germany began more rigorous enforcement of pre-Nazi legislation against those who followed a lifestyle labeled "Gypsy." The Nazis judged such people to be racially "undesirable" and enacted systematic measures of persecution against the Roma.

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/index.php?ModuleId=10006054

GENOCIDE OF EUROPEAN ROMA (GYPSIES), 1939-1945  
 
Roma (Gypsies) were among the groups singled out on racial grounds for persecution by the Nazi regime and most of its allies.

The Nazis judged Roma to be "racially inferior," and the fate of Roma in some ways paralleled that of the Jews. Roma were subjected to internment, forced labor, and massacre. They were also subject to deportation to extermination camps.

http://www.geocities.com/Paris/5121/holcaust.htm
edit- another good link about the Porrajmos