Virginia Holocaust Museum

     The Virginia Holocaust Museum is located in Richmond Virginia (all places discussed, and more are linked at the bottom of this post).  My fiancé Kyle and I arrived early and were able to park in a free lot right across from the museum and walked a small bit around the outside of the block.  

    When we first drove up, we couldn't help but take notice of the red box car outside.  The box car was built in 1928 and is the largest artifact in the collection of the museum.  It is identical to the cars the Nazi's used to transport Jews and prisoners to the death camps.  80 to 100 people were put into these cars to suffer extreme circumstances for prolonged periods of travel.

    Walking around outside and then walking into the museum was an extreme change with its immersive visual experience. After walking past the red box car, we walked up to the front doors of the museum, which had iron bars on them, and along the sides of the walkway there are cobble stones from the Warsaw Jewish Ghetto. Upon entering the museum, you walk through what looks to be a train station and entry way to a prison camp. The artistry in this museum was portrayed beautifully though the collaborative work of the artists and curators.  

    We received a five-page printed packet that contained a mapped layout of the inside of the museum as well as descriptions of each area we would be walking through.  Within the museum there was a new Children's Memorial exhibit that honors "the 1.5 million Jewish Children who perished in the Holocaust." The visual representation of this memorial was confounding.  It was a room full of empty school desks, with mirrors on the walls making the desks multiply and multiply over and over again.  The museum describes it as a "panorama of unoccupied school desks that appear to stretch into an infinite future."

    There are many rooms and subjects to be found within the museum.  I did not take pictures of many of these, but I did take a photo of this confounding quote...

   

 The following are part of the same exhibit.

    There was so much to learn, explore and feel at the Virginia Holocaust Museum.  There was an exhibit that showed a small underground hiding place for a family that grew potatoes.  The space is 4 feet high, 9 feet wide and 12 feet deep.  A family of 13 lived in this cramped small space for four months receiving oxygen from a five-inch tube. 

    For each trip we explore and learn about, I look for a small item to add to our historical exploration collection. For this trip's memento, I purchased a small red train car pin.  The Virginia Holocaust Museum is free and open to the public.

Links

• The Virginia Holocaust Museum Website here

The website for the museum has a large archival collection in which you can search for items in the museum.  There are photos with accompanying descriptions. 

• Take the Virtual Tour here

If you are unable to visit the museum, consider watching the virtual tour video. 

• Consider making a donation here