Our destinations today, as varied as they were, all had one major connection. They were designed to make you think. Between the World War II Memorial, Washington Monument, Holocaust Museum, and the Pentagon Memorial, seeing all the names of people who have died, really affected me. Seeing the exhibits at the Holocaust Museum and Memorial nearly brought me to tears, seeing the way they treated the people they considered the enemy-- Roma, Homosexuals, anybody they considered unclean; even going so far as the mentally and physically handicapped. They killed off people in asylums, some as young as 3 or 4 and used them for scientific experimentation. And my day of thinking continued at much the same pace as it started. Many of the soldiers at Iwo Jima were barely legal adults. Boys whose ages ranged from 17 to some as old as their 30’s fought for our country and gave their lives so we could live ours in freedom. It really opens my eyes seeing the sheer number of the people who have given their lives, their futures, to protect this beautiful country we call home.

– Becky

Today we went to the Holocaust Memorial and Museum as part of our experience on the Freedom Tour. Though people think it wasn’t that bad they realize that it was a horrible time period. Even though I am a boy, I started crying seeing all the shoes that represented the people in the Holocaust and the saw that the doctors would use to dissemble people’s body parts and put them in liquid. Also when they would just split families apart and then murder some of them and not tell them that they were murdered--for example in Daniel’s story he and his dad got separated from his mother and sister who were soon murdered at a concentration camp.

–Chad

Out of all of the days on the Freedom Tour so far, today was probably the saddest. We visited a lot of memorials and monuments in Washington D.C. today, and it was an extremely solemn day. The Holocaust Museum is the one that really hit me the hardest and is definitely something that I will not forget.

Having Polish ancestors that escaped from their country shortly after the prosecution of the Jewish people started made me realize that if they hadn’t left, a lot of the people on my dad’s side of the family wouldn’t be here right now. I knew a lot of people died, I just didn’t realize how many. Reading all of the information about the events from beginning to end really put things in perspective for me and realized how difficult it really was for all of those people. The part of the museum that made me tear up was the shoes. The shoes of the people in the concentration camp were removed and the best ones given to the Germans. But the rest of the shoes were not. Seeing all of those shoes was just extremely sad for me. When I reached the end of the museum, I was sad. All of those people were killed because they believe in something that the Germans didn’t like or understand. This all could have been avoided. Hopefully this shows that everyone is different and we should all be appreciated for our differences.


--Kara

Seeing all the memorials today was really moving for me because it just shows the importance of how many people actually died during wars and disasters like 9/11 and the Holocaust. I think the saddest memorials were the Holocaust Memorial and Museum, Vietnam Memorial, and the Pentagon Memorial. It’s really sad that one sick, twisted, person like Hitler, or Bin Laden, can cause so much damage and so much harm. The Vietnam Memorial was probably my favorite memorial today because I got to see one of my family members names one it. It’s sad, but I found out that my great-great uncle fought in Vietnam.

– Cameron

Memorials

Visiting the Pentagon Memorial today made me realize that going to Ground Zero a few days ago meant a lot more to me since that’s where my relative passed away. Knowing that he did pass away in the Twin Towers put a huge smile deep down in my heart but even now I am sad but it just made me feel good to here his name again.



--Dylan

Today as I visited the Pentagon Memorial for September 11th. When I was told how many people were killed, it didn’t really affect me. But when I saw the many benches, one for each victim, with their names on them, that made me realize how much people really died.



--Kaleb

I’ve had a fun week so far. New York was a blast. When we went to Philadelphia it was a short visit and it wasn’t the most fun time I’ve had so far, though it contained much history. Yesterday we went to Gettysburg and learned a lot of information about the battle. After that we went to our hotel in Maryland and got dressed up all fancy to go to a dinner theater. The food was alright but the main attraction was the show. It was a musical on a boat and it was pretty good. After that we went to the hotel and proceeded to saw many logs. Today we drove down to DC and saw a bunch of memorials. It was really interesting and historic. I also went to the Holocaust Museum. It was a very solemn place. There were many moving exhibits and it took me a while to take it all in. Well, I’m off to bed. See you when we get home!



– Robbie

Today I was at the Marine Corps Memorial (Iwo Jima). I noticed that some people were fooling around and that they didn’t realize what it meant. I thought, why would anyone fool around when there are the people who fought for this country, real people like you and me. The memorial means so much to me because I really knew what the Marines actually did for us. When I saw the memorial I stood there for a while and just looked up at the six people memorialized in the statue. I think it was the most amazing thing to see this powerful memorial--it was like a punch in the chest. In my mind I thought “Damn, I am so lucky to be in this country and be free.” I wish I could have told everyone to not fool around and respect this memorial that meant so much to me and many others.



-- Matt