SEATTLE — At the Holocaust Center for Humanity are images that are by now familiar to anyone who has studied the Holocaust and World War II: the now tattered shoes, the drab sameness of their uniforms, the haunting faces of those who never made it out alive.
For Peter Metzelaar, they are the images of his childhood.
"The fear—knowing I’m being hunted,” reminisced Metzelaar. “Is that this time they're going to get me?”
At the museum is a photograph of him in kindergarten—in his native Amsterdam.
The Star of David is sewn into his clothes, an indication that the persecution of Jews had begun.
A horror he survived, he says, by hiding.
"Nobody in my family came back," said Metzelaar. "Only my mother and I survived."
Now his story and that of other Holocaust survivors are at the centerpiece of the Holocaust Center for Humanity, the first of its kind in the Northwest.
Its stories are already being told to thousands of school children to help them see their relevance even today, says the woman who runs it.
"I felt like this was a great place," said Dee Simon. "And a great story to tell in a great way to get that message out and begin the hard work of teaching students about tolerance."
A lesson survivor Henry Friedman says it took 30 years to realize, in this place he fought so hard to create.
"So we came a long way to get to this point," said Friedman. "And it doesn't stop. We have to continue."
Evidence of that, perhaps, is the fact that you have to pass through security to get into the museum.
The security is a sad legacy from the fatal shooting rampage at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, not far from the museum, in 2006.
The Holocaust Center for Humanity is located in Belltown, at 2045 2nd Avenue.
Reservations are required to visit the museum.
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