Sorry that this is so long.

DS1 (age 6) has recently become fascinated with military history issues, and in particular seems very interested in World War II. I don't know how this started exactly. It's not something we talk about at home really. His interest is pretty focused on the military aspect, more so than the cultural/political issues. We don't allow guns or gun toys in the house, but he is interested in books about guns and tanks, etc, and why countries fight. Pretty normal boy stuff, IME.

Some background on us: I am culturally Jewish, but consider myself to be agnostic from a religious perspective. My father was born in a displaced persons camp in Germany after the war and came to the U.S. with his parents when he was 1. My grandparents were Holocaust survivors. My grandmother was German and my grandfather was Polish, but "escaped" to Russia and spent much of the war in a slave camp in Siberia. It's not a pretty story. The Holocaust loomed large over my childhood, and to a large extent, I still identify as being Jewish because of it. I was very close to my grandmother growing up and all of my grandparents friends were survivors. DH is not Jewish. He has his masters degree in the history of international relations, and probably knows a lot more about the war than I do to be honest.

This all started with DS1 about a month ago when he brought home a book from the library that was a children's history of WWII. The audience for the book was probably middle school age, but DS1 insisted that I read it to him. Clearly the library is not censoring what books the kids pick out. But I think I've come to terms with that and I'm ok with it. I was reluctant at first to read it to him, but I also felt like it was an opportunity to start a discussion with him, so I did it. I was amazed how interested he was. He's a typical 6 year old, with a 6 year old's attention span, but was fascinated by this. Maybe he'll take after DH with an interest in history.

The book was organized in chapters based on the year (so chapter 1 was 1939, etc), and basically outlined the military maneuverings of the war, but was light on the genocide and political reasons for war. So, he learned stuff about when different countries were invaded, etc. Fun times, let me tell you. I got to answer all sorts of questions-- everything from "Why did World War I start?" (good lord... I found myself saying "Well Germany was friends with Austria, and Russia was friends with Serbia" that was a real struggle to explain because DS1 doesn't really even understand the geography) to "Was Hitler evil even when he was a baby?" I brought out the globe, we talked about it multiple times for the next several days. Since then, he has asked me on multiple occasions if he can watch "war movies" by which he means PBS documentaries about WWII. He is pretty tough, and I've allowed him to see some of the images that are disturbing, and he has been ok with it. Please don't flame me for allowing him to watch these. It has been a real struggle for me, and we're taking it day by day.

So, I've been thinking about maybe taking him to the Holocaust museum. It has been a very long time since I've gone, even though we live here in DC. To be honestly, I've done a crap job educating him about our family's history up until now. And he seems to be showing me that he's got at least a basic level of maturity and an interest. I know when I was 6 I knew a lot more about what had happened than he does because I spent time with my grandparents and their friends. It's just such a hard topic to talk about and it's easy to just not do it.

DS1 is off from school for 2 weeks over the Christmas period, and DS2 will be in daycare for part of that time. Should I take him? Am I going to totally freak out doing so?