NOT EVER |
We'd arrived early to be admitted when the doors opened. It was about 20 minutes to opening time when up to the curb pulled a big black town car. Out popped a couple of muscle-men, one springing to the door handle to release Schultz who strode purposefully right past us and into the museum. What I recall was the brilliant shine of his black power-shoes. He stomped right by and into the museum, getting a twenty minute head start on We, The Rabble.
. . . ? |
One of the memorable exhibits is a railroad transport car, through which one passes to enter a huge space that is overfilled with the confiscated shoes salvaged by the Nazis from the victims they murdered. The room in which this huge trove of shoes was piled smelled of leather and death; it was overpowering. Never Again.
We have come a long way in this country and the world, with Holocaust scholarship.
I feel privileged to live now in a town with a university that supports the endeavor of Holocaust study with the resources and collection of the recently opened the Institute for Holocaust, Genocide and Memory Studies.
I never got to speak with Mr. Secretary - he blew right by us. But twenty years later, I still recall the impression that his shoes left.
George Schultz |
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