WHERE LUXURY
BLENDS WITH INFORMALITY
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LOU LACHTER
The Nely
Not just another hotel
The Dan Eilat on Israel's Red Sea with 380 rooms
all facing the sea, 7 places to dine and drink,
2 pools, health & beauty spa, shopping bazaar
and Danyland for the children.
Enjoy the ideal
combination of the
DAN EILAT and the
famous KING DAVID
I for as low as $103 per
night or combine any
of these hotels with the
Per person
in double room
DAN TEL AVIV, DAN
including breakfast
CARMEL or DAN
+ 15% service charge
ACCADIA.
I A wonderful value
when you combine
two or more of these
Per person
in double room
including breakfast
+ 15% service charge
superb hotels:
DAN PANORAMA,
TEL AVIV, DAN
PANORAMA, HAIFA,
DAN PEARL,
JERUSALEM and
DAN CAESAREA.
Effective March 1,1996-November 17,1996 standard grade rooms.
Minimum 7 nights combination of 2 or more hotels.
Rates not applicable during Jewish holidays and peak seasons.
For information and reservations,
please call your travel agent or
Israel Hotel Representatives
(212) 752-6120 or outside New York
State Toll Free: 800-223-7773/4
or FAX: (212) 759-7495
scut. 961- tek
NEXT TDVE YOU FLY ....CALL
CADILLAC TRAVI1
WELL GET YOU THERE WITH
OUR FIRST CLASS SERVICE !
coNvemotts• TRADE SHOWS • CONTESTS
INCENTNE PROGRAMS AND VAIZES
358.5330
One exhibit features a concentration camp barracks.
Six Million Tour
Holocaust Museum
LEWIS ERIC LACHTER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
M
arking the third an-
niversary of its opening
in April 1993, the Unit-
ed States Holocaust
Memorial Museum in Washing-
ton, D.C., is still going strong.
Thousands of people from
around the world stream through
the exhibits every day. Visitors
through April 1996 reached over
6 million.
What has changed at the emo-
tion-laden museum since it
opened? Not a lot. The original
dramatic architecture and per-
manent exhibits are still there to
educate and move the hearts and
minds of men, women and chil-
dren.
The museum's free public pro-
grams calendar lists current con-
certs, panel discussions, film and
lectures and is available in the lob-
by. There is still no admission
charge to the museum if you get
same-day tickets at the box office
(100 Raoul Wallenberg Place).
There is a fee for advance tickets.
A display dedicated to
Schindler's List was recently added
to the permanent exhibition.
A new temporary show will
open on July 19 and run through
the end of 1996. This exhibit will
deal with the 1936 Olympic
Games ill Germany and how the
Nazis used the global games for
propaganda purposes. Also ex-
amined will be the general theme
of anti-Semitism in Germany at
the time and discrimination
against Jewish athletes in the
United States.
If you have never been to the
museum, here are some of the
highlights.
To begin, there is the carefully
designed building itself. The ex-
terior is made of red brick and
limestone. The interior uses brick,
glass, concrete and steel — all
rough-hewn industrial materials.
Both inside and outside the build-
ing there is a sense of a Nazi-run
concentration camp. The museum
is not an easy place to visit, but it
is an important one — "lest we for-
get."
The museum includes modern
educational facilities, a massive
archive, a large bookstore and a
nice restaurant.
A visit to the permanent ex-
hibits starts with a ride in a large,
crowded elevator to the fourth floor
where visitors are greeted by a dis-
play documenting the events in
Germany from 1933-39, including
Hitler's rise to power. There are
no tour guides, but everything is
well marked.
When you have completed your
tour of that floor, you walk down
to the third. Here you continue the
saga as it unfolds from 1940-44.
The second floor completes the tale
by covering the years from 1945
to the present.
You will see vivid photographs,
large and small, audio-visual dis-
plays where survivors tell their
stories, heart-rending artifacts
from tiny shtetLs and major cities.
You will see a pile of shoes —
taken from hundreds of people.
There is an actual barracks where
prisoners "lived." Most moving is
the 15-ton railcar that was used
to transport the victims. You walk
slowly into the railcar and spend
only a few seconds inside — but it
is enough.
When you have completed your
tour, you can go up to the fifth floor
and visit the library, photo archive,
oral history archive, film and video
archive. There is also a registry of
survivors that has 80,000 files.
You might want to end your vis-
it to the museum in the Hall of Re-
membrance. The huge, 6,000-foot
space is solemn, simple. It is de-
signed to give a peaceful place to
gaze at the eternal flame burning
in the room and to think about the
museum experience.