History is significant because if people do not learn from the past, then they will be bound to repeat it. The Holocaust is an example of something that we, as humanity can never let happen again. There are a number of things that we can take away from this horrible black eye in history. The Holocaust Museum does the job in showing the tragedy and explaining what was truly happening under Hitler controlled Germany. There are five important things that I learned at the Holocaust Museum that have impacted and influenced the way I thought about the Holocaust.

The first thing I learned is that the Nazi regime did not actually care about human life at all. Their whole goal was to take over the world and win the war. The third reich ruled with an iron fist and did so by killing anyone in their way. The German soldiers were told to kill these people systematically until they eliminated the Jews entirely. No remorse for human life was granted by these despicable men. The Holocaust Museum showed just how cruel the Nazis were in there brutal killing spree.

The second thing that I learned about the Holocaust from the museum is just how chilling it was to go on with your life in a concentration camp. It was ungodly what prisoners had to go through in the work camps. The men that were strong enough to do the Nazi’s bidding often worked nonstop with little to no food. Prisoners too weak to work were shot on the spot by the SS. Often times, disease in these camps spread so rapidly that there was no escaping death. The Holocaust Museum showed that these men had to choose between death or forced labor for the duration of their time spent in these killing centers. I truly was saddened reading the walls of the Holocaust Museum when I was learning about the forced labor and starvation these people went through.

The next thing that I was able to take away from the Holocaust Museum was to learn about the number of people affected by the Holocaust. This was especially true in the death camp known as Auschwitz. This was known as the largest concentration camp built by the Nazis. It was horrifying to understand that the camp authorities and SS killed over 1.1 million people. The camp commanders took no mercy on anybody deported into their camps with most women and children getting sent straight to the gas chambers. The lives of so many families were changed with each death. Bodies were burned by the Nazis after they were gassed. The killing that occurred has made me think that this is the most inhumane thing ever done on planet Earth. It is a shame that these people lost their lives to a dictator that wanted to see the world burn.

The fourth thing that I learned while at the museum in Washington D.C. was that the Nazis took everything the Jews brought with them to the concentration camps. This was especially cruel because they were told they would be getting showers and a nicer place to live in when they got there. The shoes in one of the room had the biggest impact on me. It showed me that there was once a human standing in those shoes. The Nazis took them away from them so they would not be left in the gas chambers. A tragedy like no other was brought to life before me when I stepped into the room with the shoes.

The fifth and final thing that made an impact in the Holocaust museum was the liberation of the concentration camps. It was a real blessing for the prisoners starving to finally be saved from the grasp of the Nazi soldiers. I never knew that soldiers were told to take pictures of the malnourished people in the camps. The Nazis had all fled from fear of the Russian and U.S. armies. The devastation and the amount of bodies that the heathens had left was saddening. The museum explained what it was like for the Allied troops to storm the camps and free the Jews. It is heartbreaking what the Nazis did, however, a blessing occurred when the Jews were freed and allowed to live again.

All together, the Holocaust Museum changed my way of thinking by bringing light to the tragedies that occurred in these killing centers known as concentration camps. The Nazi regime will forever be the face of evil and the museum reminds people of what cannot happen again on Earth. The whole purpose is to teach people what a country did to a group not known for violence. As humanity continues to develop, hopefully, we as people will never rescind ourselves back to this level of darkness. The Holocaust Museum was one of the greatest learning experiences I have ever had and taught me so much about the Holocaust that I never knew before visiting.