Holocaust Horror

Yesterday Josh and I decided that we would do some more sightseeing while we are here in Washington D.C. When we first got here, we sat down with a map and wrote out all of the things we would like to see and compiled a schedule so that we could fit everything in. On Tuesday we had Kyler with us and we felt like we couldn't do as much with him, so we left him at home with my mom for Wednesday.

We were up bright and early and were on the Metro by 8:00 Wednesday morning. Our first stop was the Washington Monument to get tickets for a tour of the monument. We got tickets for 3:00, so we had some time to waste before that tour. We headed down the hill and started self-touring. All before noon we had walked a big loop which encompassed the WWII Memorial, the Constitution Gardens, the Reflecting Pool, the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Veteran's Memorial, the F.D.R. Memorial, a walk around the Tidal Basin through the Cherry Trees, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, and our last stop was for lunch at the Holocaust Museum cafe. We weren't planning on going to the Holocaust Museum until Friday, but we were on a roll and still had plenty of time and energy.

During our lunch, Josh and I were perplexed as to why we had to go through metal detectors just to enter into the cafe of the Holocaust Museum (it had a separate entrance). Then after thinking about it for a while we decided that this was an area of high interest and controversy and concluded that it was probably a good thing. As we were eating our lunch, we also discussed the remainder of our day and planned another loop just as intense as the first.

At about 12:25 we finished up our lunch and headed to the main entrance of the Holocaust Museum. We waited in line, put our cell phones and other items through the x-ray machine, and walked through metal detectors again. My belt set them off so I had to be scanned with the metal detecting wand. Once we were inside we went to the main lobby's information desk to get tickets for our tour. The tickets that we got weren't until the 2:15 tour, so the gentleman told us about a Holocaust survivor speaker scheduled at 1:00. We thought that we would hang around for that and go into the exhibits that we could. We went downstairs, where the speaker was scheduled to speak, but the auditorium wasn't open yet, so we decided to wander around a little bit and look at the exhibits downstairs. I wanted to go back to the main lobby, but luckily Josh said, "Let's just hang out here." We went into the "Propaganda" exhibit and were looking at posters and propaganda that had influenced Hitler. Then all of a sudden we heard, "POP, POP, POP, POP, POP!" Immediately I thought, "That sounded real, but maybe it is part of the military exercise that I had heard about on the news the night before." I grabbed Josh and then we heard the scurrying of people everywhere. I looked at Josh and asked, "What should we do?" He responded, "Let's get the fuck out of here!" We found an emergency exit and Josh tried pushing the door open...it wouldn't budge. Then a woman came running towards the door and kicked it numerous times with all of her might. A museum curator came and told us all to remain calm and that he was trying to get clearance for the door to open. They unlocked the door which turned out the be and emergency exit, but before the exit there was this large closet that we all had to convene into. At this point Josh and I had no idea what was going on, and all I could think about was how thankful I was that we didn't have Kyler with us...there were many parents there with their children - I felt sorry for them. How do you keep yourself AND your children safe and calm in a situation like that?

After being in the closet for about 5-7 minutes they had released us back into the exhibit we were in, but they wouldn't allow us to leave that area. Then after another 5-7 minutes they had told us that we all need to leave the museum, but we had to move quickly. They had us all on the lawn area across from the museum. Then Josh and I decided that we really didn't want to be in a area with a lot of people, so we pretty much called it a day and headed home - still not really knowing what had happened.

The staff at the Holocaust Museum were very professional and handled themselves very well during such a hectic time. On our way back to my mom's house Dave had text us asking if we were ok. Josh called him back and got the information that the shooter was 88 year old, James von Brunn, a psycho white supremacist. And that he had shot and injured a guard. We later found out that the guard was Stephen Johns and that he died from his injuries. It was a very sad event, but we are very thankful for the people that risked their lives to save ours. R.I.P Stephen Johns.