US Holocaust Memorial Museum
100 Raoul Wallenburg Place SW, off 14th St at Independence
Ave. Closest Metro stop is Smithsonian. Daily 10am-5.30pm.
Admission free . tel 202/488-0400,
Nothing in DC is more disturbing than the large and generously
laid-out US Holocaust Memorial Museum . Commemorating the
persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazis, it places
Hitler in historical perspective while personalizing the suffering
of the individual victims.
In addition to case after case of newspapers and newsreels
documenting Nazi activities from the early 1930s through the "Final
Solution," reconstructions and in many cases actual relics of
Warsaw Ghetto streets, railroad cattle-cars and concentration camp
barracks fill the top floors. The sheer numbers of people killed is
chillingly evoked throughout, first by a whole room filled with
shoes stolen from deportees, later by a crisp glass wall etched
with the names of the hundreds of eastern European Jewish
communities wiped off the map.
Tickets for specific entry times are available free of charge
from 10am each day - with a limit of four per person - at the 14th
street entrance. You can also reserve in advance through (tel
1-800/400-9373; fee charged). If you arrive without a ticket any
later than mid-morning, you're unlikely to get into the permanent
exhibition, but a certain number of temporary displays are usually
open to all visitors.
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