Yona Dickmann

Just outside the entrance to the permanent exhibit, two ladies sat at a simple table, smiling and waiting to visit and answer questions. Yona Dickmann, seen here, spoke with us for perhaps twenty minutes, answering questions and sharing memories. A survivor of Auschwitz who lost her entire family, she is today a delightful lady who made our visit all the more poignant and memorable.
After she recalled a soup made with water and a single potato and expected to feed ten, she was asked if she thinks about those things every day, all these years later. No, she said, she does not dwell on the memories.
"But I never throw food away, never," she added. Even after all these years. We felt fortunate to be granted time to visit with this wonderful lady, the epitome of survivor. She became one of the two most powerful memories we will retain from our week in Washington. The other will come up in a later post.

Holocaust Museum

Our previous visit to Washington DC had been more than 20 years earlier, at a time when a building was just going up in remembrance of the Holocaust. I recall driving past the building site right along the National Mall, so I went online weeks before the trip to secure timed tickets to see the powerful permanent exhibit.

The two-to-three hour trip through the exhibit was a multi-media experience to recall the pre-war beginning, the full-scale wartime activity, and the post-war developments. Much of the exhibit is a no-photograph zone, but here we see the exterior of the building and the quiet, solemn Hall of Remembrance. The best part of the experience will be in the next post.