Yad Vashem

And to them will I give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name (a "yad vashem")... that shall not be cut off. Isaiah 56:5

As the Jewish people’s living memorial to the Holocaust, Yad Vashem safeguards the memory of the past and imparts its meaning for future generations. Established in 1953, as the world center for documentation, research, education and commemoration of the Holocaust, Yad Vashem is today a dynamic and vital place of intergenerational and international encounter.

For over half a century, Yad Vashem has been committed to four pillars of remembrance:
Commemoration
Documentation
Research
Education
~ www.yadvashem.org

Our first look from the bus after we entered through the gates. The following four pictures are from the Yad Vashem website as you are not able to take pictures from within the museum.

This the the Holocaust History Museum that is a triangular shaped building which is an amazing piece of architecture in itself but when you how it works with the exhibits within it is truly remarkable.

There are so many things that I could speak to within this building that will forever stick with me. Certainly the historical documents and pictures but how can anyone forget the written words and drawings of teenagers like Peter Ginz who was sent to Terezin concentration camp at 14 years old and two years later was killed in the gas chambers at Auschwitz. Or the exhibit in one of the galleries that you suddenly came across in the floor, covered by plexiglass, of the hundreds of shoes of those from concentration camps.

There is so much more to the Yad Vashem History Museum than one blog post could possibly cover and so much more than one visit in one day could do justice to!

As you entered one wing of the museum there was a quote by Kurt Tucholsky, taken from a letter he wrote to German-Jewish author Arnold Zweig. In English it reads as follows:

A country is not only what it does - it is also what it puts up with, what it tolerates.

This is the Hall of Names. It was overwhelming for me and as I type there are tears in my eyes. It is the last room one visits as they make their way through the Holocaust Museum. The ceiling is lined with photos of people who were murdered during the Holocaust. Below the photo-lined dome ceiling are shelves filled with binders. Each binder is filled with the names and whatever biographical information is available for those who were murdered during the Jewish Holocaust.

This memorial file repository contains over 2.5 million pages of testimony and speaks to Yad Vashem's mandate to preserve the memory of the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust by collecting their names, the ultimate representation of a person’s identity.
When you leave the History Museum you exit from a dark corridor on to a balcony into bright sunlight. This is deliberate and intended to represent the struggle of the Jewish people during the dark days of the Holocaust, to the light of Israel, and the future of the Jews.

One of the most moving places you can visit at Yad Vashem is the Children's Memorial. It was designed by architect Moshe Safdie and built with the generous donation of Abe and Edita Spiegel, whose son Uziel was murdered in Auschwitz at the age of two and a half.

This unique memorial, hollowed out from an underground cavern, is a tribute to the approximately 1.5 million Jewish children who perished during the Holocaust. Memorial candles, a customary Jewish tradition to remember the dead, are reflected infinitely in a dark and somber space, creating the impression of millions of stars shining in the firmament. The names of murdered children, their ages and countries of origin can be heard in the background.

At the end of the narrow stone passageway is this relief of Uziel Spiegel.

The Six-Branched Candelabra is a memorial light for the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. The base of the candelabra is a pillar which rises and then spirals upwards, with the six branches emerging from the spiral. The candelabra is the symbol of Yad Vashem, and it is lit every year on Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day.

The Pillar of Heroism commemorates Jewish resistance during the Holocaust. The inscription on the concrete block reads: "Now and forever in memory of those who rebelled in the camps and ghettos, fought in the woods, in the underground and with the Allied forces; braved their way to Eretz Israel; and died sanctifying the name of God"

The Hall of Remembrance is a place that allows visitors to pay their respects to the memories of the martyred dead. On the floor are the names of 22 Nazi murder sites - extermination and concentration camps, transit camps and killing sites - chosen from the hundreds of murder sites that existed throughout Europe.

A memorial flame burns continuously, next to a crypt containing ashes of victims brought from the extermination camps.

Our guide, Kenny, is explaining the first of a four part cast aluminum sculpture by Naftali Bezem who was born in Germany in 1924. As an adolescent Naftali was terrorized by the Nazis and tragically his parents were murdered at Auschwitz.

The first of the sculptures represent destruction. A line of people are being led to the crematoria, the inverted Sabbath candlesticks represent the sacred being profaned, and the winged fish depicts the victims' muted cry.

The second sculpture represents resistance. On the background of the flames of destruction and battle, the Jews fight with their meager weapons; the ladder embodies resurgence, ascent and promise.

The third sculpture represents immigration to Israel. Survivors sail to Israel bearing the legacy of the Holocaust. To build a new life they carry with them weapons of defense and agricultural tools.

The fourth sculpture represents rebirth. Symbolized by the righting of the Sabbath candles and the sabra fruit on the cactus plants, representing the new generation, even as the tears in the lion's eyes evoke the memories of the holocaust.

This is the Warsaw Ghetto Square - Wall of Remembrance

In the center of the first sculpture, entitled "The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising", stands the leader of the uprising, Mordechai Anielewicz.

The second sculpture, entitled "The Last March", depicts the mass deportation of the Jews to the death camps.

I am standing along the "Avenue of the Righteous Among the Nations". Trees have been planted around the Yad Vashem site in honor of those non-Jews who acted according to the most noble principles of humanity by risking their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. Plaques adjacent to each tree record the names and countries of origin of those being honored.

As a young girl having read "The Hiding Place", I could not have visited the Avenue of the Righteous without visiting Corrie Ten Boom's place of honor.

You may have noticed that Corrie Ten Boom's tree looks awfully young. Within months of her death in 1983, the original tree died and this is the tree that was planted in its place.

She passed away on April 15, 1983, on her 91st birthday. According with Jewish tradition, only those persons who are specially blessed by God are granted the privilege of dying on the same date of their birthday.

Corrie Ten Boom's history is nothing more (and nothing less) than the life story of a common woman who accomplished extraordinary things through her faith in God.

"How blessed are those who keep justice, Who practice righteousness at all times!" Psalm 106:3