London’s Imperial War Museum

London’s Imperial War Museum, one of my favorite museums anywhere.

My middle brother and I have explored the museum and its collections exhaustively. We surely have visited the museum a dozen times.

When we last visited the museum in September 2007, my brother and I spent half a day guiding my parents and Joshua through a portion of the museum. We explored the giant atrium, where large-scale weapons and aircraft are on display, and we explored the art galleries. We also visited a large two-level special exhibition, “The Children’s War”, which examined the experiences of children during World War II. “The Children’s War” was supposed to be a temporary exhibition, but it remains on view today. It must have proved to be popular with visitors.

This year we plan to show my parents and Josh the rest of the museum. We plan to spend one entire day exploring the World War I galleries and the first half of the Holocaust exhibition. We plan to spend a second entire day exploring the World War II galleries and the second half of the Holocaust exhibition.

The two-level Holocaust exhibition is too sad to view the entire exhibition in one visit.

It is the finest Holocaust exhibition to be seen anywhere. The Holocaust exhibition at The Imperial War Museum puts the Holocaust Museum in Washington to shame.

We plan once again to see the art galleries, entirely reinstalled since 2007, and the atrium, with its giant weapons.

If we have any remaining time, we shall visit the display devoted to espionage and the exhibition room devoted to Field Marshall Montgomery. Everything else at The Imperial War Museum will be of limited interest to my parents and Josh, and we shall skip the other exhibitions, most of which are devoted to various 20th-Century British peace-keeping operations.

My mother will not object to spending two entire days at The Imperial War Museum. She will enjoy the exhibitions devoted to both World Wars, she will be moved by the Holocaust exhibition, and she will enjoy viewing the newly-installed art galleries. She also knows how much my father wants to explore the core of the museum’s collections.

Happily, The Imperial War Museum maintains an excellent restaurant. We shall be happy to have lunch in the museum restaurant both days.