Review of the Jewish History Museum

Last month I went to the Jewish History Museum in Washington D.C. and I took a tour of their Nazi propaganda exhibit. I'm not a big World War II buff, and I don't do much research on the holocaust (I recently read Benjamin's Crossing, and that was about as formal a holocaust education I've had since high school). But I had heard good things about the museum, so we went mid-week, as soon as it opened, and it wasn't packed with screaming high schoolers, at least, not right away.



I was pretty concerned at first, as I was given a booklet with the story of a Jewish person who was effected by the holocaust, and then asked to step into an elevator that looked suspiciously like a train car. It was starting to look like the Jewish Museum was more of a Jew-musement park. I started to sweat a little as I thought about how tacky, and tasteless this could turn out. Thankfully, the amusement park atmosphere ended there.

All that being said, there isn't a whole lot I want to say about the museum itself. Just go see it if you ever get the chance. There are a few things that seem sort of bias, like for the most part, America is painted as the big war hero, with the glaring exception of a display that references a boat of Jewish refugees that tried to dock in Florida, only to be sent back to Europe. When I was there, there was a 9 or 10 year old girl standing in front of me, and she asked her mom, "Why did we send them away?", which I imagine was probably the single most horrifying and complicated thing this parent had ever had to answer to their child thus far. The mom just sort of fumbled for a few seconds before saying, "We didn't know what they were going to do.". I've been thinking about that statement for over a month now.