Friday, September 24, 2010

Yad VaShem

Today my roommate and I went to Yad VaShem. We got there right when the museum opened, unfortunately with perhaps a dozen tour groups. The museum itself is rather nice, though a bit small and personally I think I preferred the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, though I've heard many people say the museum in D.C. is the best.
The museum has a fair layout, with everything written in Hebrew and English. As you walk through the museum, you learn about Hitler's rise to power, beginning with his Chancellorship in 1933. The journey continues with the burning of the Reichstag and the laws passed in 1933.

My roommate and I had to skip around a bit because of the various tour groups and languages being spoken, though I don't remember seeing anything on the Night of the Long Knives. After learning about the history of Antisemitism (from typical religious forms to modern Antisemitism (with its connections to class, Darwinian theory, and "purity") you learn about the early camps.

The museum itself follows almost exactly the course I took at UCLA about the Holocaust; a lot of the same quotes are used as are many of the same pictures. Unfortunately, they do not allow people to take pictures inside the museum itself; though I did see quite a few people sneaking shots.

Toward the end of the museum, they have a room for the Righteous Among Nations, the non-Jews who helped save Jews during the Holocaust. I learned an interesting fact there about one of my favorite authors: Leon Uris. In 1964 Uris and his British publisher, Bantam, were sued for libel by a Polish doctor, Wladislaw Dering. He claimed that Uris had mentioned him by name as one of the surgeons who had committed atrocities against the Jewish prisoners in Auschwitz. The court court ruled against Uris but ordered Dr. Dering to pay the legal costs of both sides. He was awarded only a halfpenny for damage. The incident provided basis for the novel Q.B. VII (Queen's Bench Seven).

Dr. Adélaïde Hautval (from France) helped Uris write his book. After attending her mother's funeral and crossing the demarcation line, she was sent to Birkenau. From there, she was sent to Auschwitz to the Medical experimentation block, Block 10. She refused to experiment upon the Jews, despite Mengele's threats and was eventually sent back to Birkenau where she continued to treat sick and injured inmates.

After exiting the museum itself, my roommate and I continued through the Children's Memorial and into the Hall of Names. We went through the Garden dedicated to the Righteous Among Nations and then continued back into the visitor's center to get lunch and then take the long bus ride back to Jerusalem.

Below are some pictures from my visit.
The view

The view again



One of the many trees planted in honor of a Righteous Gentile

A close-up on one of the plaques

Dedicated to all the unknown individuals who helped the Jews during the Shoah


View upon exiting the Museum

Outside the Memorial Hall

Pillar of Heroism or the Heroes' Pillar

A close up of the text; in English it 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 translation of the Pillar of Heroism

The Candelabra is a memorial light for the six million Jews that died in the Holocaust. It is used every year to mark the beginning of the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day.



From the tree above

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