Thursday's Things in a Row

My sister and I visited the Illinois Holocaust Museum in Skokie, Illinois. No photos were allowed to be taken inside, but I was able to take them outside the building.

I cannot take credit for this one; it is from the internet. It is a picture of the whole museum.

This is the entrance - everything is dark. Many things in a row here - doors, windows, cement tiles. The first half of the museum is pretty dark, with small lights by the exhibits. Movie clips run constantly in small niches. Some movies are worse than an horror film - because these movies are TRUE. Watching people being shot to death and falling into ready-made graves is hard to witness, even if it is secondhand and many years ago.

There is a boxcar that was actually used to transport people to the prisoner camp. My sister and I stood inside of it and wondered how 200-300 people were crammed in there. I got goose bumps up my spine and tears in my eyes.

I stepped into one room that was dimly lit. In the center of it was a model of the Belzec concentration camp that was located in Poland. This was strictly an extermination camp. A recording of a man's voice was playing. This man was the sole Jewish survivor from this camp. He worked at the camp. He described the horrors of his job, how the people didn't know what was going to happen when they entered the large dark room the was the gas chamber. I wanted to leave; I didn't want to hear anymore. But I owed it to all the thousands and thousands of Jews who were killed there at Belzec to listen to their horrible death. We need to know what happened to them. We cannot forget.

Outside and along the side of the building was posted this sign:

Here is the fountain.

Along the back are the names of people who helped to rescue some of the Jews.

some more names:

Across from the fountain are all these benches in a row; each with a small plaque with the name of the person(s) who the bench is dedicated by or to.

I know this is not a usual subject for things in a row; however it was such an interesting and important museum I felt the need to write about it. Also I couldn't pass up the photo op for things in a row!

I hope you found happier things to photograph this week!