Holocaust Museum & Learning Center

Holocaust Museum & Learning Center
http://www.hmlc.org/
12 Millstone Campus Drive
St. Louis, MO. 63146
HMLC is located in the Kopolow Building on the Jewish Community Campus in Creve Coeur, MO.
Admission: Free





This museum is perhaps the single biggest reason this blog exists. Of all the museums in town celebrating St. Louis' rich history, this is the museum I chose for my first to visit. The HMLC serves as both a memorial to the countless lives tragically stolen as well as an examination on how a people could be taught to hate. The museum shows the progression of post World War I Germany to the fall of Third Reich in 1945. The exhibit concludes by showing how survivors made themselves a new life, especially in St. Louis.

What I particularly enjoyed was the personal experiences the Learning Center highlights. The day I visited happened to be the same day an Army National Guard unit was visiting the museum. Their guide through the museum was the spouse of a Holocaust survivor. Many of the guided tours are led by survivors or survivor's spouses. After their tour, the soldiers were given a chance to hear from their guides husband. As I slid unnoticed into the back of the room, a museum employee informed me the Army unit visiting was the same unit that liberated his camp in 1945. After he was finished answering any questions they had, the soldiers stood to attention and saluted their speaker. He expressed his thanks by sliding through the tiny rows of chairs to shake the hand of each soldier.

My happening to visit the Holocaust Museum and Learning Center that particular day at that particular time was more than I could hope for. To hear from a survivor their personal account of what it was like to live through that experience can never be surpassed. I am glad I heard it for myself.