Imperial War Museum
The object that stood out to me the most in the museum was a specific image that came on the video screen in the “Children's War” section of the museum. When you enter the childrens war area it is directly in front of you with images and captions of children who survived the war on the left and plaques of some who did not survive on the right. The image was of a little girl in her mother’s arms looking absolutely terrified. Her eyes are completely shut and she is just screaming with this horrible look of terror. Surely this image was taken during the air raids from the Germans on London. The timing of this was 1939-1940, after World War II was declared and the Germans immediately began their attack, with a specific aim to destroy London in 1940. I think this specific image was important because it showed the fear and distress that innocent children went through. Almost all of the other images I saw on that video screen were of children either looking sad or confused if anything. This image stood out to me and really broke my heart and made me feel even more for what everyone went through in London during World War II. After having heard the lecture on WWI and WWII and actually going to museum and seeing what the bombs, for example, that killed so many people looked like, really affected me. I had never learned the details of what Londoners went through specifically during WWII with the air raids from the Germans before our lecture in class. I cannot even fathom living every day life with Morrison Shelters, gas masks and the looming threats of bombs. Actually living in London now allows me to visualize where this all happened and makes it all the more real and scary.
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I think for me also the hardest part of the museum was seeing the children's portion. War in general is horrible but seeing through a child's eye is heart breaking- children who had no part/doing in this war but were surely affected by it!! Either by being stripped away from their families, or joining the military at a young age or being a civilian casualty. I wonder for those who survived how the war affected the rest of their lives...
ReplyDeleteI can't even imagine what it would be like to grow up in such uncertainty and turmoil. Thinking about children too, I agree, is especially hard. Families torn about and not knowing what was going to happen next...I am really happy that museums like this exist. Even though it's saddening and disturbing, I think the people that lived through it deserve some kind of preservation of those memories to remind us of what happened.
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