Yad Vashem, the holocaust museum (and be sure to check the entry below this one)

Today was a very sobering day. We took a field trip to the holocaust museum in Jerusalem called Yad VaShem, meaning simply “memorial”. I basically knew what to expect, the holocaust is not a new subject to most people of course. But it’s a funny thing about knowledge, you can know something in one way but not in another. In this instance, it was a case of knowing factually but not experientially. I can know about the atrocity of the holocaust, but not know about it like someone who has lived through it. Yet after experiencing this museum, even for just a matter of hours, I feel that I have come much closer to experiencing it, and knowing it in that way. How? Through the only way in which that sort of entire knowledge can be taught: stories, poetry, music, art; forms of communication that engage the whole soul, not simply our heads.

As you come into Yad VaShem you enter a long, concrete, triangular-shaped corridor, making for a sort of imposing ambiance. There are walkways crisscrossing the corridor leading you into the rooms lining each side of the triangular-shaped corridor. Arranged in chronological order, beginning with Hitler’s rise to power, and ending with the rehabilitation of the survivors, you really do feel as if you are re-living the events as you progress from room to room. Positioned throughout the rooms are various plaques, displays, artifacts, video presentations, testimonies from the survivor’s etc. Emphasis is placed on not merely the historical events of the time, but also on the individual’s lives – both the Jewish people as well as the gentiles alive at that time. This is accomplished through the display of such things as their artwork, letters, journals, and other personal items.