War, War and More War

Today was pretty much spent at the Imperial War Museum all day. This museum is totally AWESOME. It's housed in this large dome building with a huge gun in the front yard. Inside are all these old tanks and cars and planes, similar to the interior of the Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. On the top floor there is a tribute to stopping genocide, focusing mainly on Rwanda and the the whole Balkans area. On the third and second floor is a very comprehensive and information Holocaust exhibit, which was mainly from a British perspective. There weren't as many artifacts like the massive amounts of shoes or glasses that other museums had but what I liked about this exhibit was how it focused on the people and the victims of the Holocaust- in every section there were at least three placards about people involved in the Holocaust including some artifacts- a piece of clothing or a letter or passport or something. It really hit upon the human side of the Holocaust.

The bottom floor is all about World War I, the Inter-War period and World War II. You walk through a long, seemingly unending maze full of stories, artifacts, clothing, guns, weapons, food, placards, information about these time periods. The exhibit is overwhelmingly full of great information about this time period. There was also a Trench experience and a Blitz Experience, the latter which we were not able to experience. After the culmination of WWII, there was a section dedicated to all the places around the world that the British have been involved in- the Cold War and Berlin, Cambodia, Ireland, the Falklands, etc., all the way up to the present day. Additionally, there was a section on the first floor that was full of artifacts- toys, clothing, letters, etc.- of children who went through WWII. Many letters were from children who had been evacuated to the country or from parents whose children had been evacuated. That was probably the most poignant of the war exhibits because it was about the children and how the innocent victims of adult arguments are truly affected.

And that was pretty much our day. We headed back up to the hostel, changed, headed back down the Bakerloo line, stopping at Maida Vale to see the area for personal reasons (one of my stories takes place in Maida Vale and I wanted to see what it was like) and the continued down to the Globe. The plan had been to go get dinner at Pizza Express but we ran out of time and had a little picnic by the Thames instead. Shiri is going to tell about the two shows so I'll let her have the blog for a bit now... :)