Museum Impressions the Museum I Attended Was

Museum Impressions The museum I attended was the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, which is located at 100 15th Street (Raoul Wallenberg Place) Southwest in Washington D.C. It is part of the National Mall. I was initially struck by the size of the museum itself, and the many labyrinth-like passages, rooms, and corridors it contained that were all related to some different aspect of the Holocaust.

I had known that the museum existed and had heard stories about many of the horrors of this particular time period, but I was a little surprised at how much history was preserved and at the number of people who were present on what was just a routine day at the museum.

One of the pieces that I spent the most time looking at was the cover of The Secrets of the Wise Men of Zen, which was displayed in its original German language in an exhibit in the lower level of the Gonda Education Center. This book was the first known version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, one of the earliest and foremost of all anti-Semitic accountings known to history, to be published outside of Russia.

The cover of The Secrets of the Wise Men of Zen was simple enough, containing blue text in a colorful, calligraphy print over a sand colored background. To my surprise, a Star of David (which is a symbol of the Jewish religion), is prominently featured on the upper portion of the book, while there is a symbol of the earth and hands shaking on the bottom.

However, it was amazing to see the cover of one of the documents that has been so influential in propagating anti-Semitic sentiment throughout the world. The exhibit featured the covers of several other versions of this text, of course, but it was incredible to see the first one to appear outside of Russia -- which helped to fuel the translation and appearance of the several others that followed it. I also spent a good amount of time at the Nazi Propaganda Exhibit in the Kimmel Rowan Gallery.

The piece that absorbed my interest the most in here was a still photograph of Adolph Hitler when he was, ironically enough, jailed in 1923 for attempting to overthrow the government. Most depictions of Hitler in the exhibit were traditionally propagandist in the sense that they showed him animated, leading a number of men, and calling forth others to overt action. The common perception of this Nazi leader is that he is the quintessential villain, and most of the images in the gallery matched this impression of him.

This lone photo of him in a Landsberg prison, however, captured the human element of the man that would become beast-like in his slaying of millions of Jewish people. He looked remarkably refined and distinct from any sort of criminal intention or behavior. Had the caption not stated that the photo was taken while he was in jail, I would have thought he was commonly eating breakfast in his kitchen or engaged in some other domestic pursuit. This piece emphasized his.