Thursday after class, a large group of us decided that we would go to the Imperial War Museum. Once the infamous Bedlam insane asylum, the Imperial War Museum is packed with history. The Imperial War Museum moved to this site in 1936.
Walking up to the building, I noticed a large piece of stone off to the left hand side of the walk way. I went over to it and learned that it was a piece from the Berlin Wall. On this piece it says, “Change Your Life.” The Imperial War Museum acquired this piece of the wall in 1991, after it was dismantled in 1989, says the information plaque next to it.
The moment you walk in, you are surrounded by planes, a submarine, an old double-decker bus, missles, and old military vehicles. The first thing we did was go through an interactive submarine. It was intended for children but we had such a great time. We were able to use these headphones to detect what sounds certain objects make. We were also able to get a feel of what submarine life was like. A few of us climbed up into their bunks.
A German missile.
An old Red Cross jeep.
A very small submarine.
Types of food that can be found on an airplane.
After walking around in the submarine exhibit, we headed over to the exhibits on World War I and II. These were very in-depth exhibits with tons of information. Part of the exhibit went into detail about that raids that damaged Britain. It was very sad to read about all of the children that had to leave their parents to go to safer places. It was very disturbing to see statues of children in gas masks! There were also nonfunctional bombs scattered throughout the exhibit. In this exhibit, there were also several military uniforms from most of the countries involved in each war, coins, medals, and letters. One of the letters was from Adolf Hitler. It was very chilling and disturbing to see his signature at the bottom of a piece of paper. We went to two interactive experiences that went along with the World War I and II exhibits. In regards to WWI, there was a trench war experience. This experience showed you how life in the trenches was. For the WWII exhibit, there was a blitzkrieg experience. This one was actually kind of scary. You are guided into this pitch black bunker where you can here bombs and planes around you. Then after that stops, you are taken through a hallway that shows you all of the damage that was done to London. I was asking Maegan something while we were in this hallway when I saw something move behind her. It didn’t register to me that it was a real life man and he scared me so much!
The next pictures are from the Trench Warfare Experience.
Wow, still true today.
After this, we made our way to Holocaust Exhibition. It was marvelous! This is the most in-depth exhibit on the Holocaust that I have ever seen. It was so moving. It was extremely informative. In one of the rooms, there was a mound of shoes that were taken from the prisoners. In this exhibit, the museum tries to not just portray these people as nameless victims. Instead, it gives firsthand accounts from witnesses in the Holocaust. I learned so much and it was very difficult to go through this exhibit without becoming emotional. We weren't allowed to take pictures in this exhibit because of the sensitive nature.
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