I was deeply moved by this classes visit to the Holocaust Museum. The way the architecture and linear route of the Museum takes you through the historical timeline of what led up to, and the events of, the holocaust is emotionally devastating. I was also confronted with the realization I had massive gaps in my understanding of history regarding ghettos established under Nazi Germany. The history of Jewish resistance forces, both violent and nonviolent, was something I was completely unaware of. There was a small display showing the metal milk can that had stored documentation of what was happening recorded by a Jewish family. Reading about how they succeeded in their goal of preserving this information and not allowing the atrocities committed to be forgotten knowing they perished in the Holocaust was both so inconsolably tragic and such a testament to the efforts of Jewish families like them. They had multiple full wall displays of the stories of individual resistance fighters who, using very limited armaments, held off German forces for almost a month. The multiple ghetto uprisings, the partisan forces of young Jewish people who went to the wilderness to hide, the efforts of people in the Netherlands to protect their Jewish friends and neighbors, it was some of the most inspiring examples of human perseverance I have read about in history. The amount of humanity, kindness, and hope that was still upheld under the weight of intense violence recontextualized many of the things I have read in this course. It is very easy to separate oneself from deeply disgusting ideas that you read, or to characterize them as ridiculous making them nonthreatening to your emotions while you discuss them. This is washed away when standing face to face with the actualization of those disgusting ideas. It is impossible to remove yourself from the reality of that amount of hate.