Have you ever visited a museum or historical site that was REALLY emotional, good or bad?

[Stinky The Clown]

The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam was tough.

The remnants of The Wall and the actual buildings I recalled having seen on TV along Bernauer Strasse in Berlin made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

The word somber doesn't come close to describing The Holocaust Museum in DC. It can bring one to tears.

I only recently visited The African American Museum. Part of it is celebratory, but the first part of the suggested route through it is very affecting - as it was intended to be.

Fort McHenry, while telling the story of The War of 1812, the site is patriotic and a really wonderful place of national pride.

Fort Sumpter was mostly just history told factually. For our visit some years ago, it brought home to us how little some American citizens have evolved. We took a National Park Service boat to visit. The docent on the boat told us of "The War Between The States". Respectful and factual. The next day we took a harbor cruise because I wanted to the former Navy base where I was stationed. That tour boat had a narrator. When we got near Ft. Sumpter he spoke of the "War of Northern Aggression." Yeahokaysure dickhead.

I could go on, but for now I will end with Pompeii. Fascinating and moving. The plaster casting of humans who were vaporized, only leaving a void in the lava where they were burned to oblivion in heart wrenching poses.

[XanaDUer2]

1. MLK Memorial nt

[dflprincess]

2. I was surprised by the reaction I had to Lincoln's Tomb in Springfield

My friends and I were on a road trip and decided to stop when we realized we would be passing near it. I had not expected to feel almost as though I was in his presence.

[deRien]

10. I agree...

it was quite a surprise to feel you are in Lincoln's presence. It was somber, very quiet and dimly lit which gave it a surreal feeling.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

3. The Vietnam Memorial in 1984.

At Constitution Gardens.

Seeing the pictures of buddies lost, boonie hats, boots, photos of cars, cards, etc., moved me to tears. Guys I grew up with, knew in school, went to war. Those who came back were never the same.

It is the names on that polished black granite that tear you up.

[Bobstandard]

5. This

[Stinky The Clown]

6. That is right in my backyard but it took me a decade to visit it.

Gifts and momentous are still left there. The Park Service collects and catalogues them nightly.

[CincyDem]

7. Yeah. Was there when it was just a wall...maybe 82? No statue yet.

Really astounding first impression that doesn’t really fade with repeated visits.

[Phoenix61]

9. Got me too. nt

[tavernier]

90. I was a puddle.

Lost many friends.

[CincyDem]

4. Dachau. In a snowstorm. With thunder and lightning. Whew. n/t

[Stinky The Clown]

17. You're stronger than I. I have not had the courage to go.

[WarGamer]

47. Agreed...

Dachau just has a dark dark vibe.

Some say it's darker than Auschwitz. Typhus, cruelty, bitter cold...

All the wartime misery... even the liberation was horrific.

First, US GI's find rail cars full of bodies and then they allowed the prisoners to assault the Nazis and even lined up wounded Nazis from the field hospital against a wall and machine gunned them.

Irony was, the camp guards had mostly left and the Nazis killed at the camp had no connection to the camp.

[CincyDem]

64. Yep

Several amazing things going on there and one that sticks with me was that there were row houses across the street. They were old enough (in the early 80’s) that they were there in the 30’s-40’s. And there were people living there who looked in their 60’s-70’s. I couldn’t help but wonder…how long have you lived here?

[ripcord]

96. I felt a heaviness at Dachau

I was 16 and we had some Jewish students in our group and they really had a hard time dealing with that place.

[BigmanPigman]

8. Yes, in France at WW2 cemeteries.

The white crosses went on and on across the horizon. It was a sea of crosses.

[ITAL]

13. The WWI Cemeteries as well

Meuse-Argonne is the biggest in Europe and very sobering.

[ITAL]

11. I've had several

I've been lucky enough to visit seven of our overseas cemeteries. They were all beautiful and moving. Seems almost everyone who does that goes to Normandy, but I recommend going to see some of the lesser visited ones. I think my favorite was Saint Mihiel in Eastern France.

The Lincoln memorial in Washington DC brought tears to my eyes when I visited the first time.

The Pennsylvania Monument at Gettysburg, which is about where the center of the Union line was, and the goal of Pickett's Charge when the CSA was turned back.

The United Flight 93 Memorial in Pennsylvania.

And honestly, maybe the one that touched me the most. There is a simple marker in Lexington Mass, put up about 20 years after the American Revolution. Several of the colonists who died there are buried underneath the marker. Truly the birthplace of the United States as we know it.

[Enter stage left]

12. In Fort Sumner, New Mexico there was a museum the went into a lot of detail...

about the "Long Walk" of the Navajo & Mescalero Apache tribes rounded up in 1863-1868 and forced to march to the Bosque Redondo Reservation at Fort Sumner.

The US military persecuted and imprisoned 9500 Navajo and 500 Mescalero Apaches at the reservation.

The routes were 250-400 miles long and hundreds died during the forced march at gunpoint.

When I walked out of that museum, I was FUCKING FURIOUS at the stupidity of the "All superior White Man".

One of our "American Hero's", Kit Carson was in charge of this egregious abuse of minority's and people who couldn't or wouldn't fight back.

I still get furious just thinking about it.

I'd really recommend it to those who can stand it.

[rsdsharp]

14. Tiananmen Square, two years after the demonstration and subsequent massacre.

The terra cotta army at Xian. The more you look, the more they seem to live.

[electric_blue68]

82. Wow, quite a contrast.

[rsdsharp]

83. It really was, and they were three days apart for us.

In between Gorbachev was deposed in the Soviet Union. A busy week for us.

[electric_blue68]

87. Oh, woah!

[Samrob]

15. Gettysburg and AA Museum and Vietnam Wall.

[Redleg]

68. Gettysburg was a very moving and sobering experience for me

Though I had read quite a bit about the battle, seeing the land itself was revelatory. I am glad they preserved so much of the site.

[edhopper]

71. Gettysburg

for me, as well.

[Samrob]

75. The visit there and hearing the sounds and learning of the number killed there haunted me for

days after.

[303squadron]

16. Four have brought me to tears

The D-Day Museum at Omaha Beach.
The American cemetery above Omaha Beach.
Auschwitz, where the Nazi's murdered over 50 people who shared my mother's maiden name.
Oradour-sur-Glane - if you don't know that story, google it.

You might notice there is a theme here - all are WWII.

[H2O Man]

18. Recommended.

I have. These include sites that are a little different than those that are mentioned in other responses here -- all of which, like what you mentioned in the OP -- are valuable sites, worthy of respect.

For decades, I served as Onondaga Chief Paul Watermman's top assistant. Paul was tasked by the Iroquois Congederacy's Grand Council with protecting Sacred Sites, including burial sites, as well as repatriation. We also worked on other environmental issues. Not all of the sites I accompanied Paul to were well know outside of Traditional People. Over the decades, I'd meet Native Americans from North, Central, and South America that sought Paul out.

[rownesheck]

19. The 911 museum at ground zero.

I had to step outside after a while. I was getting too choked up.

[grumpyduck]

20. For me, several of the memorials in DC were heart-stopping.

The history in the place. Like you're there.

The Little Bighorn battlefield in MT. The graves and the story of what happened there. And the monument to the war horses.

Several places in England got to me, including Westminster Abbey. The history in the place.

Europe is still on my bucket list, but I'm sure I'll visit some of the places mentioned above.

[Edit] The 9/11 exhibit at the NYS Museum in Albany.

[moondust]

21. Berlin.

For a while I lived in an apartment on Berliner Strasse. Some of the neighboring older apartment buildings still had bullet holes in their masonry walls visible from the sidewalk.

The Berlin Wall in part of the French sector had had concrete poured across the top and into the wet concrete they had embedded glass shards that would rip your hands apart if you jumped up to try to escape over the top. And in parts of the no-man's land behind the wall there were automatic firing devices that would open fire if someone trying to escape tripped the wire/sensor.

The official purpose of this Berlin Wall was to keep so-called Western “fascists” from entering East Germany and undermining the socialist state...

[WarGamer]

57. Absolutely.

Before going to Berlin I studied the Battle of Berlin extensively so had a list of places to check out.

Loved the history and story around Neukolln Rathaus.

[moondust]

59. Neukolln was in the American sector

so I probably spent some time there but don't remember all the U-Bahn stations. Loved the U-Bahn and never had any safety concerns even late at night.

[QED]

22. Westminster Abbey

Poets, scientists, etc.

[babydollhead]

23. The African American Museum. I had to leave.

The museum trip began with meeting my adult son and eating delicious food from their food court. We were happy to share the food and glad to be together. We start in the lowest level. It was one of my first times out since being discarded by husband of 30 years, after putting up with his narcissistic abuse. I had no shell. I could feel the outrageousness of oppression. I could feel the claustrophobic space closing in. The voices coming through the speakers of the horrible agony of families torn apart. It was so evocative despair in the darkness and cramped quarters. I whispered to my son, “I have got to get out of here” it was so hard to find the way out. I will go back because I want to experience the upper floors. I learned it’s not just the museum experience, it also who you are, at this moment in time.

[Stinky The Clown]

28. That lower level is difficult

As I understand it, that is intentional. Dark. Somewhat claustrophobic. Crowded.

Like the lower decks of slave ships.

[babydollhead]

48. It worked!

On the way down, in this giant elevator, the woman working the buttons, said, “you might want to get tissues, people find it very emotional”. It was guttural.

[electric_blue68]

85. Checking the opening date - one of the Only times (2) I was ever out of the USA.

Eh, I should have saved up in '17 & '18 to visit in '19.

I've read about it.

Hopefully I'll get to visit DC one more time (I have much less money now but maybe I'll be able to sell some if my creative stuff at some point 👍 ). I'll definitely visit it

[Stuart G]

24. Yes, The Lincoln Memorial, brought up horrible thoughts about "The Civil War"

...Needless deaths, lack of medical care, reason for the war, aftermath and long range results. battles that killed
thousands, on and on..

[ForgedCrank]

25. There is one that's very hard for me to look at.

It wells up inside me every time I see it, even just an internet photo.

[Redleg]

70. A picture speaks a thousand words

I too am moved.

[lapucelle]

26. The AIDS quilt.

It was laid out on a field on Governor's Island. Each of the 3ft x 3ft squares that make up the quilt was held in place by boxes of tissues on each corner, and I wondered why.

After I looked at and read the first square of the quilt, I needed the tissues to wipe the tears.

[roamer65]

27. The USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor.

[Permanut]

45. Been there three times..

And this Navy vet will go again if I get the chance

[sakabatou]

55. Been there.

[kairos12]

29. 20th Maine on Little Roundtop. Gettysburg.

[Redleg]

69. Yes to this.

Standing there and looking down the hill was quite an experience. Being on the far left flank of the Union line must have created an almost overwhelming sense of responsibility and perhaps vulnerability.

[KentuckyWoman]

30. Hokie I know but

Freedom Center in Cincinnati. We split it up into 3 days thank goodness because I get tired these days. Even in a younger body I could not have emotionally handled that in 1 day.

The other was Arlington. My Uncle is there. We had a car pass. After paying respects we visited with a nice lady that comes to see her son every Wednesday. She had the scrapbook with her. We sat our chairs with her awhile and let her tell us all about him.

[Stinky The Clown]

38. Thank you sitting with that woman

[Dave says]

31. Yes, several

For example, about 15+ years ago, while my colleagues were busy at a technical conference, I wandered into the SF MOMA. I walked into an exhibit in a side room and there observed numerous shoes, each in small spaces in the walls behind transparent parchment-like paper. l walked around mulling over how strange it was. There were heels, sneakers, boots, slippers. I walked out and read the plaque: They were real shoes from the disappeared during 1980s US interventions in Central and South America, the transparent parchment paper meant to be seen as the tortured skin of the tragically departed. It hit me like a truck and brought tears to my eyes.

[former9thward]

33. The Killing Fields in Cambodia.

The first time I visited in 1992 it had not really been developed as a "Museum" yet. The last time was about 2009. The mass of bodies buried there were starting to move to the surface. Pieces of clothing from the corpses was starting to break through above ground. A tragic site for sure.

Some oddities, not necessarily emotional, include the 'mummified' bodies of Lenin in Moscow's Red Square and Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi.

[Takket]

34. Holocaust Museum. For sure.

the shoes...................

[Volaris]

65. Agreed. It's...stark (and it should be).

Taps over Arlington National was blood-chilling, as well.

[Mr.Bill]

35. Ellis Island.

It has it's upside, because it was the gateway to success for many, but it took a lot of hadship to get there, with a lot more hardship ahead.

Seeing the slave quarters at Mount Vernon is also a troubling experience when juxtaprosed with the great feeling of walking through Washington's home.

[Texasgal]

36. Texas Book Depository

The JFK memorial. Very emotional.

[marked50]

37. The Vietnam Memorial in DC was incredible to me.

The simplicity and the lists of the lost and the memorials people were leaving behind. Just totally impacting at the individual level.

I was also found a couple of places that gave me another type of emotional response, mostly one of incredible sacrifices that others have given to their causes.

This was in the Phillipines. The two locations were the WW2 American Cemetary in Manila and Corregidor Island in Manila Bay.

There were boat trips to Corregidor with tours. The heroism of the American defenders of both Bataan and Corregidor and their suffering after their surrender just hits you when you are there. T

There was also a twist to this that drove home another point, similiar to Eastwood's "Letters from Iwo Jima" movie. The tour of Corregidor island had two separate tours- one for Americans and the second for Japanese. The Japanase took extremely high causalities both in the taking of the island and even more when American's reclaimed it. The two groups end up in the same place at the end of the tours. You can feel the incredible losses from all who were involved.

[GP6971]

39. The Viet Nam Memorial Wall

and the Dachau Labor/Concentration Camp.

[Hobo]

40. The Menin Gate

Ypres, Belgium.

They have a ceremony every night, based on playing the Last Post, the British version of Taps. I'm not crying you're crying.

Hobo

[The Wandering Harper]

41. Taos Pueblo left me shook beyond words

about all I can add to that is, landback

[Easterncedar]

42. King's Landing, New Brunswick

There is something indescribably lovely about this reconstituted village of rescued buildings, staffed by earnest folks bringing history to life. The second time I went there I, a rather unemotional sort, crossed the gate and burst into tears. I surprised myself. It was just so sweet.

[LudwigPastorius]

43. The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and park.

...also, The USS Arizona Memorial.

I visited both within a few weeks. This was during a working vacation several years ago.

The other one for me was Charlie Parker's grave in Lincoln Cemetery, Missouri.

[musette_sf]

44. I went to the Winter Garden when it reopened in 2002.

Very emotional visit.

Article is gifted, no paywall:

https://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/13/nyregion/palms-return-island-manhattan-major-replanting-winter-garden-prepares-reopen.html?unlocked_article_code=aXuFlM0mTTEB7IhTFeFFLmnk7fOKzMTUyYm2ryev3OVVKE8HejMvGoaH1cWGNOBeotKAE_jaNMHmhLc7mX4v9R46PvRwRd239FRfYQY1sWgGEcA4mo6BtRgQoJgVBLSK1M-Crud-8bDuYwuNBd9w9DYR4D0xEuYtBvytbazM_Jr-Krv8C3LuU6zw9p1O4NVM2QVNYb_8upt-kdNRFduyGUN3c8FOybnP7qb5LzhPGJYe4-YzuzjKOm5-gbIUa9ZhzISAG49MShrYGvE6ViKd-24Kpw2XIONmU7ek1C1g3fgGFx4jtYhdwytQQ4jaGEc1x9D2nJazKC_yFo-nIGsCIKMdhKlrrQZhpQt5KcwgY36hJ0d2vk3k5908joitLKnRXFk3kAaoDAvP6tSS55jf98yCqQn4b8g&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

[sinkingfeeling]

46. Several: Pearl Harbor, the Ukrainian War Museum, Auschwitz and Dachau all moved me to tears.

[NowISeetheLight]

49. Andersonville

I watched a two night documentary on this years ago and was able to visit when I lived in nearby South Carolina. The documentary was very accurate from everything I read and the place kind of reminds me of Arlington. Sacred land. It's very sad.

https://www.nps.gov/ande/index.htm

Andersonville wasn't a civil war battlefield... it was a prison camp in Georgia. Almost 13k Union soldiers died there. The prison commandant was executed as a war criminal after the Civil War. It's a horrible story. The horrors and evil there rival the concentration camps of WWII in my opinion.

Two good amatuer YouTube documentaries (not for the weak of heart): Search for them on YouTube:

"Andersonville: 26 Acres of Civil War Hell | History Traveler Episode 87".

"Andersonville Civil War Prison: (Jerry Skinner Documentary)"

[ITAL]

53. Prison camps were awful in the Civil War

The Union had some with incredibly high death rates as well (Elmira Prison was probably the worst, the same percentage of prisoners died there). So many soldiers from both sides died in prison, especially once exchanges were stopped in 1863. Andersonville was just such a massive one, it became infamous.

[Retrograde]

50. Chaco Canyon

in New Mexico. A fantastic multiplex of buildings, in many different styles, built around 1000 CE. There is evidence that it was a major trade center, and items were found there from Central America and the West Coast. It makes one wonder what the people who built it would have done if it hadn't been for a major drought.

[UTUSN]

51. My ship's bell on the 'net

[moonscape]

52. Most moving for me were

3 places I visited before any part of them were roped off. I could walk as they walked, same ground, and there were no crowds:

- Pompeii in the 60’s as a teenager. Like you, made a big impression.
- Parthenon in 1970. Took bus and then walked. During a lull in people because I did not take the same bus back down, it was pretty much me, a couple of other people, and a couple of guards, near total privacy, like having it to myself. I got emotional actually, walking on it, grateful I had taken that ancient history class in high school.
- Macchu Picchu in the 90’s during MRTA’s hostage taking in Japanese Embassy in Lima, lots of drama during that time! Stayed at the top, govt hotel, with a mere 30 some rooms. The last bus took away remaining tourists, leaving us hotel guests to enjoy sunset and Macchu Picchu alone. Was Feb so listened to the active Urubomba roar below, and watch birds fly by at our eye level. Amazing experience.

Most horrific:

- Dachau in 1971. I was doing a semester independent research project related to Hitlerjugend and GYA (German Youth Activity) which was our American GI response to it. Anyway, I was immersed in that world for a semester traveling around Germany doing interviews and for some inexplicable reason went to Dachau. I lasted less than 10 minutes. Told my research partner I was returning to the car and would wait there. What was I thinking to even go there? Answer: I wasn’t. Wish I hadn’t.

[WarGamer]

54. Yeah, Dachau.

I mentioned it above.

Felt uncomfortable from the first step.

The way it's laid out... just stark and creepy. Plus there is bad energy everywhere in history, from the rail cars full of bodies to the disease... to the way the prisoners were allowed to "play with" the Nazis and the machine gunning along the wall.

[Happy Hoosier]

58. 💯

I had a major emotional reaction at Dachau. Like, openly crying kind of reaction.

[meadowlander]

60. Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin

https://www.kilmainhamgaolmuseum.ie/

This includes the spot where the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising were executed.

Also the street art in Belfast and Derry when I visited in the early 90s just before the Peace Accords made a strong impression.

[mnhtnbb]

56. Peche Merle, a cave in France

with astounding prehistoric art. I was literally in tears looking at the hand prints, imagining the artists who put them there. I was there on my honeymoon in 1985, and I had never experienced such an emotional connection to a place or work of art.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pech_Merle

[electric_blue68]

81. Amazing. . They've I believe restricted the amount of visitors.... ..

bc of the humidity of our breaths

[JCMach1]

61. Tower of London, kind of sickened me how proud they were of torture

And execution...

Vibe was very different than what I had in mind.

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

62. The Hiroshima Peace Park,

I visited it when I was stationed in Japan.
A very sobering experience.

[betsuni]

63. Hiroshima Peace Park museum, but that was because I was afraid of being murdered.

This was long ago, I was visiting a friend in Hiroshima. She was working so one weekday morning I went to the museum by myself, right after it opened. There were few visitors, a group of German tourists with a guide. I ended up being alone by the time I got half-way through the exhibits.

I noticed an angry-looking older man behind me, and eventually felt uncomfortable because he was staring at me and huffing. Red faced, probably drunk. I sped up. He sped up. Suddenly he began screaming at me and I had no idea about what. At first I thought, "How does he know I'm American, what with the museum filled with Germans?" Then I realized that if he became violent, by the time staff realized it, it would be too late. I ran like hell for the exit and didn't stop until I was half-way across the park and exhausted. He didn't follow me.

That was scary.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

66. Genocide Museum in Rwanda.. Looks over a small plot of land containing remains of 250,000

victims of the Rwanda genocide

https://kgm.rw/

[SkylineChili]

67. My top ones in US

The Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, particularly as it ends in the Lorraine Hotel rooms occupied by Rev. King and his staff

The Texas School Book Despository Building --JFK's murder was my first experience of national loss and public violence as a child. The museum is very well done. Looking out the window down onto the street where the motorcade passed is sadly moving.

The Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum, the outdoor space honoring the victims, responders, and families of the 1995 Murrah Building bombing. It is beautiful and evocative.

Great thread. It is wonderful to hear of these memorials and spaces.

[Scottie Mom]

72. Hyde Park

The home of FDR. I took a look while visiting there at so many things that really hit me.

FDR, Eleanor and Fala are buried on the grounds -- Fala at the foot of the graves of FDR and Eleanor. It was amazing to see so many things. I can still recall looking at the heavy leg braces FDR used and the dress Eleanor wore to the ball for the inauguration.

I was there back in the 1980s and I still have so many pictures in my mind. Not only has FDR been my favorite POTUS since I was a child in the 1950s, but my life time love of Scottish Terriers came from seeing his beloved Fala with him.

[Paladin]

73. Gettysburg battle site, and the Musee d'Orsay art museum in Paris.

Those are the two best that I've ever visited.

[electric_blue68]

86. Oh my gosh - thank you prodded my memory...

Not actually my memory, more like my focus bc I went right to the Historical stuff vs any Art Museum in contrast to History Museums.

My Aunt invited me to visit her and my Uncle's home in a little village in western French speaking Switzerland for 3 weeks so I could make art with her in her studio (part of their house) She was an extroidinary wood cut artist/printer. She did etchings, and other stuff, too. Her studio was magnificent.

She also bc I asked if I could take off to Paris for a day ended up taking me, and one of her granddaughters to Paris - 4 days/4 nights. I was floored!

Spending so much in their home, and her studio was just So Wonderful! 🧡 My Uncle drove us around too.

Anyway we (among 2 other museums) went to The
Orangerie Museum where ? most of Monet's biggest Waterlillies paintings are displayed.

I had no idea there was that museum! It was so beautiful, so mesmerizing with those extroidinary paintings. We spent a long time there. 🧡
And most luckily only had a modest amount of visitors that day/time.

Plus 2 days earlier in the evening after arriving at noon we emerged into the area/section, and saw "The Winged Victory" at The Lourve! 🧡

[Paladin]

89. Paris is my favorite city on the planet.

Would love to see it one more time, before I kick the bucket.

[electric_blue68]

97. Well, I hope you do! I wanted to go there but unexpected ...

circumstances arose so my income quite dropped a bit.

So her extra gift of visiting was mind blowing to me. The fact that I even got there once!

I watched her talking to a young ?University student at that museum, while I also gazed at the paintings.

That day I left them for a few hours to see the Eiffel Tower (they'd been there). While I didn't have the time, or money I didn't go up, I loved seeing it, then walking along The Seine till I got to the Pont Alexander Bridge with Golden Winged Horses on the pillars. Took transit back to our hotel. 👍

So many wonderful things to see, and so. We were also just 2 blocks from The Seine, I lived to see the book and magazine sellers. Still have my Paris Tote bag!

Luckily way earlier in my life I had some good income, and got to visit the high desert (rented a car w a friend); of The Southwest, The Hopi and Navajo Nations, Canyon De Che, Monument Valley, SF, LA (my cousin was living there), friends of my dad in Alberquerque.

The next summer South Dakota, for a special event, and The Black Hills, back to the Hopi & Navajo Nations by Greyline Tours this time, Alberquerque NM.

These were some of the places I wanted to go the most, plus some cities up & down the East, North East coast.

[GusBob]

74. Bear's Paw Battlefield

where Chief Joseph made his famous statement : 'from where the sun now stands I shall fight no more'

Whats great about this place is its remoteness. No tourists

[lucca18]

76. The Topography of Terror museum in Berlin.

The SS, the Gestapo secret police and the Reich Main Security Office ran their central operations from the site.

I remember a group of school students that were there to learn about their past.
They appeared to be writing down their thoughts, and then reading it to their classmates.

And, the large photos of people displayed on the walls, whose lives were so tragically ended by Hitler’s madness.

[Stinky The Clown]

78. I think I visited that site with a native Berliner

I don’t recall that name, however.

[Martin Eden]

77. Handwritten notes by Gregory Peck during his role as Atticus Finch

I love the book and I can't watch the movie without shedding some tears. To Kill a Mockingbird is very dear to me.

The notes were on display at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.

[Tommy Carcetti]

79. The Holodomor (Ukrainian Famine) Monument in Kyiv

It had a very quiet, solemn, somber feel surrounding it. They had these chimes slowly playing in a descending tone that seemed to capture the feeling.

On the same visit, I also visited (actually stayed overnight) in Maidan Square, where the massive protests took place in 2013-14. It was a much different atmosphere because it was so busy and full of life and people you would never have guessed it was the same place where deadly protests took place just a few years previously.

[electric_blue68]

88. Sigh...

My dad's parents had already left Ukraine.


By serendipity as I happen to look at the right side of a four sided library book shelf a few years before the pandemic shut down - I caught "The Ukrainian Night: ________" by Marci Shore.
She went and interviewed various Ukrainians who were involved in the Maidan Revolution.

[electric_blue68]

80. Several...

I went to DC as an 11 yr visiting our cousins just over in VA, then as a 17 yr old with my sis, and a friend.Been there many more times for fun, and protesting.

So somewhen in my 20's as I returned again I felt a surge of patriotism from knowing that this was a place people went to protest to make life better for more people.

Visiting The Wall - The Vietnam Memorial in DC. Surreal, quiet, and solemn.

Visiting The Lincoln Memorial at midnight was magical.

Seeing The Woolworth Lunch Counter - ?Museum of American History DC. I could feel the whispers of History around me.

Visiting JFK's, and RFK's graves on this gorgeous low humidity, deep blue skies Summer day. So sad.
_______________________________

Back in my NYC - while not a "official" site per see visiting the ruins of the WTC (I worked there 73rd for South Tower 2 for almost a year 20 years earlier, and often visited the plaza & shops afterwards) over the months was extremely surreal.

Later visiting the official Memorial Site. It's very beautiful. Definitely teary eyed.

[First Speaker]

84. Ford's Theater

...I feel Lincoln's presence there much more than I do at the Memorial...

[tavernier]

91. St Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg Russia

Where the remains of the Romanovs are buried.
I was there during the time shortly after the remains were discovered and there was a lot of political infighting regarding which bones should be interred, etc.
The chamber was dark and sad and filled with horrible feeling.

Certainly, for me in first place was the Vietnam Memorial Wall since that is my generation and I lost friends, and the Freedom Statue in Riga, Latvia, since that is my heritage.

[PCIntern]

92. Washington crossing the Delaware in

Washington’s Crossing, PA

They used to have the huge Leutze painting and narration in the auditorium. Fantastic.

[Emile]

93. Candle's Holocaust Museum in Terre Haute, Indiana

https://candlesholocaustmuseum.org/

[Danmel]

94. Yad V'Shem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem

The US Holocaust Muesum, the Oklahoma City Memorial, all those chairs.
In Riga, Latvia we visited the site if the Nazi massacre of Jews at Rumbala Forest.

[Kid Berwyn]

95. Lots, like at Der Staedel in Frankfurt am Main.

Ecce Homo (Behold Man) by Hieronymus Bosch

[hatrack]

98. Tuol Sleng, which was a Khmer Rouge interrogation and torture center in Phnom Penh

About 22,000 people were sent there, and there were seven known survivors. Absolutely chilling.

I'll also add Little Big Horn. The valley, where the Sioux and Cheyenne were camped, has changed a great deal - highway, rail line, and of course the river itself has shifted around for 150 years now. But up on the hills, where Custer's battalion was wiped out, almost nothing's changed. And when you're there, you really understand how he ended up as he did - rolling hills, and steep ravines that make it almost impossible to see the whole battlefield.

We were heading back to our car at Weir Point, and a cowboy came over one of the neighboring hills, driving a herd of horses. The rumble of hooves and cloud of dust absolutely made me shiver, and it was about 95 in the shade that day.

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

99. I saw the Pompeii exhibit in 1979.

That final scene of the lava-cast woman who thought she could protect herself by pulling her toga over her head... I'll never forget it.

Mt Rushmore made me so angry I was crying. I've nothing (or precious little) against the presidents carved into the rock; it was the carvings themselves that infuriated me. There we were driving through these beautiful mountains...then...that obscenity. I don't get why people have to deface a mountain out of national hubris.

[maxrandb]

100. During my Navy time, we went to Pompeii

To see some of the bodies frozen in time from the volcanic eruption was chilling.