Yad Vashem

Going to the Holocaust Museum was a very significant experience while here.  I have been to the holocaust museum in D.C., so I thought I knew what to expect.  It was not near as graphic as the D.C. museum.  It focused more on individual stories rather than on statistics about the general event, which I really liked because it made it easier to imagine what it would have been like.

The Holocaust Museum: Yad Vashem

  One astonishing thing that I learned is that for years and years, Holocaust survivors were looked down upon.  There are two monuments in the front.  One of the Warsaw Revolt and the other depicting Jews going "like sheep to the slaughter".  In Israeli perspective, a good jew is heroic like those of the Warsaw revolt.  The survivors were like the sheep going to the slaughter.  They feel that survivors should have fought back.  They felt that the everyone survived at the expense of someone else's life.  It shocked me to learn that Israeli had such harsh views to people that went through something that was so terrifying and horrible.  It wasn't until the Olympics in Germany in 1972, when some Israeli wrestlers were kidnapped and killed, that the viewpoint on survivors began to change.  This event made them realize that it was not cowardly at all not to fight back.  if anyone would be able to have courage to fight back, it would be Olympic wrestlers.  But they didn't because they thought that if they cooperated, they would have a better chance of surviving.  this same thing applied to the Holocaust victims.  They were told if they would cooperate, that they would live.  One other important thing to remember is that the Nazis were very deceitful.  The Jews had no idea that they were headed to concentration camps rather than labor camps.  They were not cowardly.  I don't think anyone of us would have behaved any differently.  We all just want to survive.

"The camp's law is that those going to their death should be deceived until the end."

-Tadeusz Borowski

Monument celebrating the Warsaw Revolt heroes

Monument of Jews going "like sheep to the slaughter".  Notice how different the people are depicted in these 2 monuments.

Tower of Heroes Memorial.  Dedicated to the Heroes of the Warsaw Revolt.  This pillar is the highest point of the area because Israel holds them in the highest esteem.

I didn't get as emotionally overwhelmed as I did when I went to D.C., but I did feel like I was hit by a ton of bricks when we went through the Children's Memorial of all the children that died.  When you first walk in, they have pictures of these precious young children ages 3-9 years old.  As soon as I saw a picture of a little girl that looked to be between 5 or 6 with a darling smile and cute little cheeks, I immediately thought of my little sister Victoria.  Thinking of her made it so much more personal.  I cannot imagine having to watch sweet little Victoria have to live through something like that.  Thinking of someone else's little Victoria suffering from starvation, cold, murder, sickness, and hatred makes my heart ache.  No child so sweet and perfect should ever have to experience anything that even remotely resembles that; but hundreds of thousands of little Victorias did suffer and die.

Standing outside the entrance to the Children's Memorial.  The broken-pillars/columns are meant to symbolize the children's lives that were cut short.

After walking through the room with pictures, we were led into this pitch-black room that had tons of these lights, each representing a life.  As we walked through, holding on to the hand railing, there was audio that said names of some of the victims.

Here are some of the stories that were featured in the Museum:
A 13 year old girl (now an old woman)  hid in the coat closet with her older sister (age 17) when they heard some Nazis knocking on the door.  They heard their mom answer the door.  The Nazis her that they had to go. (Their mother and father.)  She then asked if she could grab her coat before they left. They answered yes.  Their mother opened the door and said, "Goodbye children."  Then she grabbed her coat, and shut the door.  They never saw their parents again.

A man was with his father on the outskirts of town by the synagogue.  His father was shot while he was standing right next to him merely because a German soldier thought that he was getting to close to the woods.
This same man was shipped to Auschwitz.  At the age of just 13, he had to pull gold teeth out of all of the dead bodies that came out of the gas chambers.  That's only one year older than my little brother, Austin.

There was one photograph on a wall that really struck me.  It depicted a mother hovering over her toddler in the middle of an empty hay field.  Behind her, a Nazi shoulder was aiming a rifle at she and her child.  I think this I remembered this picture because even on the brink of death, a mother will not leave her baby.  She was putting herself between her baby and the gun.  Even though they were both hopelessly doomed, she was still a protective mother.

Cool statue outside the exit of the Museum.  I'm not sure what it represents, but I interpreted it as God welcoming His children home.

Herzl's Tomb.  He led the battle to Israel gaining their own nation.

After the museum, we walked over to Mt. Herzl.  We laid on the grass while Ophir told us about Herzl.  I didn't really pay attention.  I was just happy to be laying on some grass. :)