Israel Blog #9: Holocaust: Yad Vashem

One of the most sobering stops on the trip was to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial.  It really was a beautifully made place, with trees commemorating those who saved Jews (including Oscar Schindler), a memorial to the children who died in the Holocaust, and a memorial to all of the holocaust victims.  It was heartwrenching to walk through the progression of the rise of Naziism, the campaign to turn the people against Jews, and the dehumanizing and killing of Jews in the communities and in the concentration camps.

Yad Vashem

In this pain, there were also inspirational stories from the Holocaust.  Groups of Jews hid and survived in the forest, and fought back against the Germans.  Many individuals who otherwise were safe from the Germans hid the Jews and helped them survive, risking their own lives in the process.  When Hitler ordered Denmark to give up their Jews to the Germans, they smuggled the entire population of Jews to Sweden to save them.

Something that I learned that I hadn't thought about before was that the Jews had a tough road after the end of World War II.  I watch a video of a Polish Jewish woman who survived the concentration camp.  Her entire family had died.  She went home to find another family at her house.  Instead of welcoming her or empathizing with what she had gone through, they asked, "why are you still alive?"  This type of experience of being ostracized even after the War makes the desire to return to Israel make even more sense to me than their historical right to live there.  The people needed a home, where they could be safe.  At the time they saw that to be Israel.

Another video that was saddening was another woman who survived the concentration camps.  She got married after the war, and later on found out that she was pregnant, she asked the doctor for an abortion, because the thought of a baby crying was traumatizing to her.  After her experience in the concentration camps, she thought that she would not be able to handle the flashbacks that would come from having a baby.  This story had a happy ending, as the doctor failed in the abortion, and the child ended up bringing joy to the mother's life.

The museum was one long hallway.  The last room of the museum was an archive room that included all of the names and stories of people who died during the Holocaust.  It was a sad place to be, but a good reminder of the travesty of the holocaust.  Leaving that room and walking out the exit, we were left with this view:

The Jewish communities in the distance were an image of hope.  The Nazi's failed in their attempt to destroy the Jews.  The Jews survived, and were able to make the most of their survival in their homeland.  It was an inspirational thought.