The Holocaust is fascinating simply because it is so staggering. It's difficult to wrap your mind around what happened in Germany, and only 55 years ago at that. As I shuffled through the Holocaust Memorial Museum in DC, the montrosity of the event became so real again. All those numbers had faces and names -- real people just like me that suffered under inhuman circumstances. One part of the museum stood out to me in particular: a tall shaft filled with photographs of Jews that died during the war. You walk into the middle of the shaft and every direction you look there is a face of a real person staring back at you. I can't even imagine what they went through.

I watched a Band of Brothers episode a few months ago. The one where the soldiers come upon a small concentration camp. My reaction to that scene was literally a physical reaction, not just an emotional one. When one of the imprisoned Jews grabbed an American solider in a welcoming hug, my body sobbed. Twenty seconds later my emotions caught up.

I never want to be de-sensitized to what happened to the Jews during WWII. Museums such as this are so very critical to remind our generation of the horrors of war and the potential extent of human evil. It boggles the mind that Hitler could have accomplished what he did. I can only thank God that I was born in America in the 70s, not anywhere else at any other point in time.