My friend and I today toured the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum, which is within a chip shot of Dealey Plaza in the city’s downtown district.

We got near the end of our tour when suddenly I froze, transfixed by the images being shown and by the voice attributed to one of the death camp survivors who had been freed by Allied soldiers near the end of World War II.

My friend asked if I was OK. I shook my head “no.” Did I want to leave. Again, I said “no.” I wanted to stay and listen to the voice tell me of the unimaginable deprivation inflicted on millions of Jews. My reaction to it all caught me by surprise.

Yes, I know all about the Holocaust. I know all about the extermination of 6 million human beings who happened to be Jewish. I had toured Anne Frank’s house in Amsterdam with my bride in 2016 and knew of the suffering she endured after being turned over to the Nazis by her fellow Dutch citizens. In 2009, I had the high honor of visiting the famed Yad Vashem museum in Jerusalem. So, none of what I learned today was a surprise.

Maybe it all just caught me in a moment of weakness. The exhibit reminded me of the depths that the human heart can plunge. And it surely plunged beyond what anyone could predict when Adolf Hitler seized power in Germany in 1933. He formed the Third Reich, which he said would last 1,000 years.

In April 1945, Hitler married his mistress Evan Braun and on their wedding night they committed suicide … ending the Third Reich after 12 of the most miserable years possible.

The museum in downtown Dallas reminded me of why the world must hold fast to its solemn pledge: Never again.