United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington DC

Phenomenal. Free, but limited tickets are given out for each time slot to ensure that the permanent exhibit is not too crowded. The permanent exhibit is 3 stories of information and it's huge. It is kept cool, but I hardly noticed. A lot of the very graphic material is shown on monitors that are covered so that smaller children can't see it. There is a children's exhibit, Daniel's Story, which the adults in our group enjoyed as well. There are other exhibits as well. We spent about 2.5 hours in the museum, but I could have easily doubled that.

Out of all the museums I visited on my trip to DC, this would have to be the most memorable. I can't even explain how it impacted me the entire time I was in there. The museum is designed also to give you a glimpse of what it was like during the holocaust and being inside a concentration camp. Not that there could be any comparison but even those minute glimpses is enough to make you walk away with a feeling of unease and discomfort. During my visit. they have special exhibition on propaganda. I really learn a lot on the effect of propaganda and how it was use by the Nazis. This method is now widely used by the politician around the world to gain support from their own people. This really open up my mind as well. Not many photos here as can't take photo in the exhibition area.

Learning about this in school a few years back didn’t really make it seem important... after visiting here... everything came together. One cannot walk through here without crying. At certain points you walk on a bridge and your just surrounded by the Jewish people who lost their life to this horrific event in history. This is so powerful.. I wouldn’t recommend taking younger kids... at least 12 years old but make sure they are ready to be respectful and quiet. It is so emotional. Seeing the artifacts what they had to go through... just everything about it. This is something you don’t want to rush through. Prepare a good 5 hours of just walking through.. reading and taking everything in. The staff here are so incredible. I’m completely speechless after this visit. I now know the truth behind a topic that so many try to forget... it’s a sad and horrific part of our history.. but we should never forget it. With forget comes regret when this is pushed so far away that it’s just told as a horror story. We can never let that happen. We can never let this happen again.... everyone is human... we all have faults.. but we all have lives and families. No one deserves to get deprived of living because of what they believed. This is so emotionally draining and so powerful. I would recommend doing this for sure... there’s just so much to learn it’s hard not to do it on your visit. I will always remember everything from here.

Fantastic memorial & museum. Lots to read, so be prepared. A lot of WWII history is provided at the beginning of the permanent exhibition, to help contextualize/remind us of what we see in the last two-thirds. Staff were engaging and helpful. Permanent exhibition was very thorough. Some content is set up in a way that allows parents to easily censor it from their young ones. The permanent exhibition is free but there is timed-entrance during the spring & summer high-tourist months. It’s $1 to book a free ticket online. The only issue I had was that the air conditioning was on way too high!

One of the best museums in DC! The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because of the sheer number of people they let in makes it really, really hard to take your time and really take in the museum. I had been the year it opened but was going to be back in DC and decided to so see it again. I was happy when I went to their website and noticed that they recommended getting tickets prior to your visit (they are free, unless you order online, then they are $1 each). I figured they finally realized the popularity of the museum and by requiring tickets, everyone would be able to get through the museum and see it all. That's not the case. It was still horribly crowded and that made it hard to see everything. That aside, the museum itself is incredible and worth the visit. If you are looking for one or two things to see while in DC, don't miss this one! It's very powerful and important and you feel that throughout the museum.