DC Day 2: White House, Smithsonian, Holocaust Museum

Monday, March 26, 2012

The following photographs were submitted by Ivana Vasquez, Chile

on the bus

Washington Monument

just relaxing outside of the White House

Welcome to the photo gallery of Isabel De Los Reyes, Mexico

The Washington Moneument makes me JUMP

Anyone know if Obama is home?

Ready to Fly

Lhing Worathanawong from Thailand shares her artisic images

Lookin' good

Marie-Louise Lege from Germany shared her photos too.

Today we went to the Holocaust Museum. It was really emotional and made us think more about what actually happened to Jews during World War II. The exhibition was really informative with many documentations, pictures, poems and props. I think that most of the people from other countries than Germany and Poland didn’t really know how devastating this time period really was.

My friend and I felt an indescribable guilt during the movies because they showed the rising of Hitler and with him the persecution of Jews. One documentation was about refugees and their personal stories and it was this documentation that touched us the most. To hear about their experiences and struggles during this time made us retrieve the past of our country.

Oscar Hong & Anastasia Weissbecker from Germany

Behind the Dark Side There is a Hope

By Mio (Jiamin) Liu  from China, Addison NY

Grey wall, dark lights, that is such a heavy environment, lead us to their world, a world without hope…
Its dark, it’s cold and dirty. They are suffering and dying while others are relaxed and drinking coffee…

“What is a Jew? Why am I a Jew?
“Because you born that way”
“So they kill my papa and mama?”

Yes? Or no?

How can you answer such a question to a kid? A 10 years old kid! Only 10 years old!! But why? They didn’t do anything wrong, they are not something useless, not someone worthless, so why are they going to die? Why are they being disrespectful even when they already dead?
Maybe there’s not even an answer. Killing happens everywhere, in every century.  We felt unbelievable, we felt unreasonable, and we felt sorry. People always hurt each other, sometimes purposely sometimes not.  However, that is just history; we cannot hide as well as change it. But we can remember it, remember the painful our brother and sister had, remember the mistake we made, and remember the reason why people got crazy, and then protect ourselves, protect everyone we love, stop the bullying, stop the discrimination, stop the killing. Teach everyone how hard people had tried to survive, how valuable our lives are. If there is no hope, so let’s just create one.

At the National Air and Space Museum

Who wants popcorn?

The National Mall is under construction.

...and more construction

How cool to be here to see these changes taking place!