Yad Vashem

Another wonderful educational opportunity I got was to go to Yad Vashem, a memorial for the six million Jews that were murdered during the Holocaust.  The words Yad Vashem literally mean “a name and a memorial.” These are taken from a passage in Isaiah.  The passage is talking to righteous individuals who had no posterity to remember them by.  The passage states “I will give them in my house and within my walls, a monument and a name better than sons or daughters.  I will give them an everlasting name(Yad Vashem)  which shall not perish.” (Isaiah 56:5).

So I know you probably don’t want a history lesson, but what I learned was TOO interesting not to share.    I feel very privileged to have had Ophir, my Israel teacher who is Jewish, talk about the site with us.  I have learned about the Holocaust all throughout school.  You would think because of this I would at least have heard most of the main concepts about the Holocaust.  However, Ophir gave me an insight into something I had never heard before.  It was so fascinating.  He focused on the Holocaust from an Israeli perspective and what the view of the Holocaust was like after.  If you can imagine, people surprisingly did not talk about the Holocaust after it happened.  It was not discussed, children were not educated on it, and survivors weren’t necessarily recognized.  He taught us the reasons for this in two reliefs that they had on the grounds.  

As you look at what is depicted in this first relief, you see the overall theme is sorrow.  You notice in the middle a Rabbi holding the Torah scroll.  You see women and children crying forced by the Nazis ( soldiers in the back) into Ghettos, and thus ultimately to most of their deaths.   The people are all looking down  with an expression of defeat.  People say they were “like sheep going to the slaughter.” There were many Jews who did not fight back. 

This relief has a different mood to it.  This depicts the revolt in the Warsaw Ghetto. Moods of hope and determination are shown in their faces.  They are holding weapons about to fight back.  Most all of these people were killed.  However they were Jews who went down fighting.  They were considered heroes. 

So there was this overall perception and connotation of the word hero as being someone who fought back. Well everyone who fought back was most likely killed, so that would mean the survivors would have been people who did not fight back.  This more or less, added to why people did not speak of the Holocaust.  People who survived were not being recognized as heroes.

There is a lot of background and events that could add to this perception as well.  Take for example the War of Independence.   If, for example, they had not fought back then they would never have gotten the state of Israel.  This adds to heroism being defined as fighting back.

However in 1961 and 1962 Adolf Eichmann who was over the logistics of the Final Solution, the “annihilation of the Jews in Europe”, was found and put on trial. This trial was broadcasted which ultimately led the story of the Holocaust to go from not being talked about at all, to being studied, talked about,  and listened to. Schools would even go and listen in on the hearing.  Things talked about began to be in the school curriculum and high schools began to memorize things he said.  This began to evolve.

Now there are many more things that helped the views people held about the Holocaust to evolve.  One catalyst Ophir talked about was the Munich Olympics in 1972. The Israeli wresting team was kidnapped and killed.  Here were these people that were the epitome of ultimate athletes.  Yet the wrestling team did not fight back and they were all killed.  Israeli’s generally thought that fighting back was the right way.  However this Olympic catastrophe was one event that helped led to the change of ideology.  What denoted a hero was not so judgmental, and the views became more elastic. Perhaps heroism doesn't necessarily have to involve fighting back after all, which is contrary to the views of many people.

The view of the holocaust has been a dynamic evolving perception. Survivors as well as people who were killed are considered heroes.  The Holocaust is talked about, and remembered.  Heroism is now not only defined as fighting back, but it encompasses so much more than that.  It is especially recognizes  those who maintained the Jewish life.  One Rabbi said that just living Jewish life is heroism.  It is a spiritual resistance, not just a physical one. 

This tree(the little one) symbolizes this idea perfectly.  There was a Jewish woman who was over an orphanage.  She, on the Jewish tree planting Holiday, took the children behind the orphanage she worked at to a plant a maple tree.  She risked her life to maintain the Jewish life. 

Out of the six million Jews that died a quarter of them were children.  Above many other reasons, a lot of children were killed if they were below a certain age.  They built a beautiful memorial for them.  Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures due to the no flash photography rule.  However I will try to describe it as best I can.  As soon as you walked in there were these huge pictures of children hanging with reflector type things positioned in certain ways between them.   This made it look like there were tons of pictures of children, when in reality there was only around ten.  In the next room over it was pitch dark. They had vast numbers of candles all over.  They also had mirrors everywhere to reflect the light from the candles.  This created the illusion of a starry night sky.  It was incredible. One of my favorite parts.

The museum itself was very fascinating as well.  Immediately when walking in they had belongings of things found in Jewish people’s pockets that had been killed.  There were a lot of pictures of family members and captured events that took place in these people’s lives.  It made me think, if I were them, what would I have carried in my pocket?

I could have literally spent days in the museum.  There were rooms and rooms filled with facts, stories, movies, personal accounts, and personal belongings ( the museum has 2500 personal items donated by survivors.)  I unfortunately only had 2 hours allotted to look through.  I wish I had a longer time. 

The last room was very significant I thought.   It had a lot of pictures of Jews who were killed that lined a hollow cylinder that went up in the sky.  Then they had shelves, and shelves filled with books.  These books hold people’s names that were killed.  Anyone is allowed to submit names of people who were killed during the Holocaust. 

Yarnish Chrota(I am sure I spelled his name wrong) is a famous children’s teacher.  He was over an orphanage.  All of the children were being sent off to get killed, but because of his high reputation he was allowed to live.  Despite this he saw it as his responsibility to go with the children in his orphanage to comfort and watch over them. He voluntarily died.  He is recognized as a hero.   

The Hall of Remembrance has the names of 21 Nazi death camps engraved on black basalt paving stones. The center has a casket of ashes from the cremation ovens taken from the concentration camps.  There is also what they call an “eternal flame.”  This flame signifies that those who died in the Holocaust will never be forgotten.

  

There are tree planted all over the property.  They plant tress in memory of the people who saved Jews during the Holocaust.