(May 11th) "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil..."

...is for good men to do nothing.

Warning: This post is long and it goes into heavy stuff. This was place was a meaningful experience for me.

--- Wednesday May 11th ---

We went to the Imperial War Museum today. I feel like people might think that this is a place that glorifies war and the achievements of the British during the war. It actual doesn't. The Museum does have a lot of cool stuff but that doesn't mean that it was glorified.

There were 3 moments where I realized what this museum was really trying to do. The first was right in the main gallery when you walk in. You walk in and you immediately see all of these really cool relics such as a V-2 Rocket, a US Harrier Jet, a WWII Spitfire and a Russian Tank. I've always loved old WWII machinery so seeing the WWII stuff was just awesome.

Main Gallery of the Museum

You walk down the stairs to get to the floor and you see a old cannon that had the first really effective recoil system, revolutionizing artillery technology.

Cannon

And then you walk behind the cannon and then you see it. Surrounded by all of these massive machines that were made to protect, defend, attack, and destroy, there's a piece called "Baghdad, 5 March 2007"

"Baghdad, 5 March 2007"
The remains of a car destroyed by a terrorist bomb
(Photo by The Guardian)

9 years ago on March 5th 2007, someone used that car. That person was probably just worried about getting groceries or making it to work. They were wondering what they were going to do that evening. People are always involved in war. And in the middle of all of these massive feats of technology was a casualty of war. Dwarfed in size by everything else in the room but larger in importance than them all.

The machines of war that towered around looked like they could have been sentries swearing to never let this happen again. Some who had just looked so prideful to me before now looked ashamed. Here were some that looked like giants mourning over the loss of one so little. All stood as witnesses to what had been done and could not be undone. There was no glory here.

The second experience I had was during the WWI exhibit but before I go into that, a little bit of background about the exhibit itself. This was one of the well presentation on this war I have ever seen and I learned a lot. First it was a multimedia experience that allowed for a lot of interaction with the displays. It was organized in a more or less chronological fashion so that you could see how the war turned into the horrifying stalemate that it was. There were cannons, pictures, posters, medals to satisfy the curiosity of anyone with an interest in the war. It also had a lot of sections throughout that focused on what was happening on the Home-front of Britain. Here is where my second experience comes in.

There were displays that showed toys that kids played with. Propaganda recruitment signs that had a daughter sitting on her fathers lap asking "Daddy, what did YOU do in the Great War?"

There was a display showing uniforms of the different nations. Most were muted colors so they wouldn't show up be easy to spot. The only one that was different was a bright blue and red French uniform that was used at the outbreak of the war. Numerous attempts had been made to change the uniform to reduce visibility of the soldier but it was always turned down because the colors, particularly the bright red trousers, "showed courage, pride, and boldness on the battlefield". There were letters written by the soldiers to their loved ones in one of these sections. I managed to find one of the letters I saw on the internet, it said this:

Dearest Win,

I am writing just a line, Win, in case of accidents. Just to let you know how I have always loved you, Dear. You are the best little girl on God's earth, have I told you before? But I am writing this because I have a feeling that I shall not come back again...If I do come back, Dearest, you will never see this letter, but I have a strong feeling that I shall never see England again..."

How many wars could have been avoided if pride wasn't such a rampant beast? How many lives could have been left to thrive? How many hearts could have been kept from being broken?

WWI Uniforms

The third experience took place in the Holocaust exhibit. They asked for us to refrain from taking picture inside of this exhibit. I don't think I would have been able to even if I wanted to. This particular exhibit was different to other exhibits, films, or stories that one in the states usual sees. Most of the ones I've seen are usual in the attitude of "look and see how terrible it was". To me this one was "See how terrible it is and understand how to avoid it again."

After WWI, Germany was blamed for everything that happened. It short it was humiliated. People were afraid and prideful. They needed a scapegoat for their problems so they went to the traditional scapegoat of the time, the Jews. Anti-Semitism is what it's called. A hostility, or prejudice, against Jews. And it was renewed at the end of war.

As we know, Hitler came into power. He used the fear and pride of the people to his will and got them to do things that they probably wouldn't have done otherwise. One point that the museum made was that Hitler only wanted to the Jews deported from the country. He wanted them out of the country so that the German people could have all of the jobs and not be burdened by these people who were being down the German people. (side note: Sound familiar?) At first they were put into Ghettos. Seperated from the rest of society. However as fear and pride were increased so did discrimination and hate until they, and many others, were considered less than humans and the Ghettos weren't enough. Thus the business of mass murdering began. 

Half way through this grim exhibit I had to stop because I just broke down and cried. There was a display of thousands of shoes that belonged to these people. So many lives were lost? And for what? How could these intelligent, and previously decent, people bring themselves to commit these atrocities? As one of the Jewish Holocaust survivors stated in the museum "We never believed that this would happen in our country. We who had been the foster country to some of the worlds greatest poets and musicians such as Mozart, Bach, and Beethoven. There was no way that such a thing would even cross our minds."

But alas it it did. And if we are not careful and we refuse to learn from history, we are bound to repeat it again.

At the end of the exhibit is a quote:

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."