The purpose of this site is to memorialize and remember the six million Jews murdered during the period of Hitler’s rule. There are ten halls that focus on different periods of the Holocaust, beginning with Hitler’s rise to power in pre-war Germany to the horrors of the Nazis death camps. The intent of the exhibition is to teach the history of the Holocaust and to remember those who perished.
I’ve learned about the Holocaust and have studied it before but after studying the Jewish religion in class and going to the Western Wall and witnessing the lives that these good people lived, I saw the history of the Holocaust in a whole new light. This happened to good, God fearing people just like us. The exhibit started off showing a video of the lives of Jews before the WWII. Though many had been scattered from their homeland of Israel already, they were happy living a peaceful life. Then their lives were taken from them. I saw a picture drawn by a young girl whose mother was a singer and booed off the stage, and her father, a doctor, forced out of the operating room and told never “to touch his filthy hands on anyone again.” Their lives were turned upside down in an instant, their belongings confined to only one bag and the clothes on their backs as they were forced to live in ghettos.
We learned about the thoughts and opinions of Jews at this time. Revolts did not occur right away because the older generation thought “We’ve been persecuted before and have waited it out and it has turned out alright, we’ll just wait this out too.” Because the Nazi’s were very good at covering the truth up, many countries and organizations didn’t help.
How all of this evolved and took place seems unreal, but it happened, it’s real. As our group was led to the different exhibitions, I noticed an elderly woman who was using her tour guides’ mic to speak to the group. She seemed to be passionate about what she was saying to her group, in Hebrew. As we walked past her, our tour guide said that she was a survivor, the number was still tattooed on her arm. It was so overwhelming to come home and realize that we had been there today with survivors. The affects of the Holocaust and still very, very real today, not only to those that survived but even in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
We stopped at one exhibit with a large picture of a group of Jews lined up at one of the work camps. Our guide asked us where we would stand if we were there. Many of us said the middle or the back. Our guide told us that she led a group with a survivor in it who said that he would always stand at the front because if you stood at the back, you were likely to be humiliated and picked on, if in the middle the same thing would occur. He said that he always stood in the front to show them that he was not afraid and that he was strong. He survived Auschwitz.
I was touched by a story that our guide shared with us of a survivor who found cement sacks and then gave up two days ration of bread to obtain a pencil so that he could write down the Holy Prayers in fear of forgetting them. He also wrote the dates of the death of his family members and friends on one of the corners. He survived and for years stood at the front of synagogue with the pray book in one hand and these pages made from cement sacks in the other. The faith that many of them had is inspiring to me.
The Hall of Names was the most touching to me. I couldn’t help but be filled with emotion as we entered the dome filled with pictures of those that died and saw the binders on the walls filled with names matched to numbers of those in concentration camps. Our tour guide pointed out to us that each of us have many names. The names of these Jews were taken from them as they were tattooed with a number made to feel humiliated and shamed and to forget even their own identity. I was overcome with emotion as I fixed my eyes on a picture of a young girl who looked about my age. I thought about the plans and dreams she must have had and the life she had ahead of her full of endless possibilities. I was overwhelmed by the thought that all of that was taken from her. Half of the walls were left blank. There are still 3 million Jews whose names are missing. There is a radio talk show that airs every day here in Israel that tries to help people find their loved ones.
I was touched by the whole museum and hope to go back and take more time in the exhibit. What a reminder Yad Vashem is that we are all children of our Heavenly Father. This is an identity that can never be stripped of us, and one that each of those six million had and still have.
I’m so grateful that we got to go through it.
Megan, me and Sidney in front of the Yad Vashem sign
The Memorial in front of the children's museum. The face of the man in the middle gave up his life to save the lives of Jewish children.
After visiting Yad Vashem, we visited Mt. Hertzel. This is the tomb of Hertzel, the leader of the Zionist movement of the Jews to Israel.
Me and Megan with some Israeli children in front of the Hertzel memorial
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