The Imperial War Museum

Last Sunday I ventured south of the Thames to visit the Imperial War Museum, recommended to me by a work colleague. If you are a military history buff, this is the place! But even if you aren’t the displays are fascinating and very well put together. They have a simulated trench from World War I that you walk through with smell and all. They also have a simulation of The Blitz during World War II.

The Holocaust exhibit was very moving. It reminded me quite a bit of The Holocaust Museum in Washington DC, which is also a multimedia experience.

The top floor of the museum exhibits the thirty minute film, Crimes Against Humanity. The narrator of the film stated that while during World War I, 90% of the people that were killed during that war were soldiers and only 10% were civilians, by the end of the twentieth century, those numbers had flipped with 90% of casualties being civilians. That is a staggering statistic.

They also had a great exhibit about the secret war, which for the first time talked about MI5, MI6 and other secret government agencies. There was also an exhibit about Rudyard Kipling’s son who was killed in World War I.