Kayla Shaw: How Can A Family Go Through Such An Event?

Visiting the museum was an interesting yet saddening experience. I rarely get to go to museums or travel so just being able to go was fun for me. The museum was set up amazingly, and there was so much to see and learn. In fact, there is no way of seeing everything all in one visit. 

On the other hand, being at the museum and seeing all of the memorabilia from that horrible event was disheartening. I could not ever imagine going through what all of those people went through. Sitting down and watching all of the videos and interviews of people who suffered was very hard to bear. I do not know what I would have done if I were in that situation and lost family members. I value my family and I also have a two year old son. Watching the videos of people saying how the Nazis would tell one family member to go one direction and send their child to another direction, without them knowing if they would ever see each other again, made me sick to my stomach. All I could think about was how horribly mothers (and fathers) of those children must have felt. It really hit home for me because I do not how I would live without my family or my son. I felt such admiration for those who made it through and survived the horrors they endured all while losing everything they had. 

The miniature replica of the gas chamber was very upsetting as well. It showed the different rooms where people would line up, strip down naked, and then go into the gas chamber to die. It also showed people shoveling up the ashes of the dead. It was really a sickening image. As I was looking at this replica, I wondered how those people must have felt standing in line waiting for their death. Fear was obviously something they must have felt, especially the little children. How were the parents of those children soothing them? What were they saying to them to calm them and make it so they were not scared? How horrible it must have been for them to know their children would not be able to live a long and fulfilled life! I feel like I thought about that aspect of the Holocaust more than anything because I am a mother. 

Meeting Mrs. Magda Brown was unforgettable. Listening to her testimony about her experience during the Holocaust was life changing. To be a survivor of such a gruesome event in history is just amazing to me. It seemed to me that Magda is proud to be able to share her story around the world and touch the lives of many people. She really is a lovely woman and I feel so blessed to have been able to have had the chance to meet her.