Yad Vashem Field Trip Monday October 19th

This week our field trip was to Yad Vashem, which is a Holocaust museum here in Israel.

I didn't take many pictures, because cameras weren't allowed inside the museum, but it was really good. I did take some of the grounds, so here we go:

We walked onto the museum site, and our professor for our Judaism perspectives class was our tour guide for the grounds before we got into the museum. We went to a different place after this, too, so he came with us to show us the grounds of the museum and the other site also.

First we walked onto the grounds and there was a path with trees surrounding it. It was a garden, named "The Garden of the Righteous Gentiles" meaning those who helped the Jews, but were not Jewish, escape from the Nazi's. Ophir, our professor, explained to us that the purpose of the garden was to remind Jews who exit the museum and memorial that there are still good people in the world, even though it's easy for them to feel like the whole world is against them after going through that museum. It was really interesting.
This is the garden. It was a stark difference from the rest of the memorial, which is made with concrete and very stark, as a symbol of the incredible gash in history made by the holocaust.

After that we went into a plaza where Ophir told us that they have Holocaust memorial days there. There were two bronze relief sculptures there, one that shows the desparation and the feelings of the Jews who were herded around by the Nazis. the Nazis aren't pictured in the relief sculpture, but suggested in the background with bayonettes and helmets. The other bronze relief is one of definance and liberty, of Jews who rebelled against the Nazis and stood up to them.
This is the entrance to the next main plaza.

This is the first bronze relief, you can see the people that look submissive and down being herded. You can't really see the depiction of the soldiers...I'm sorry, this picture isn't that great.

This is the one of the defiant crowd, fighting for justice.

Ophir also told us that after the war, the survivors would go and tell about the places, and oftentimes people's response to it was "Well if it was really that terrible, then how did you survive?" And beacuse people felt like they would be questioned as to how they survived, who they forsake or stole food from in order to survive, then it wasn't talked about much. Of course the second reason for survivors not talking about it was because they wanted to supress the awful memories, but I had never heard that other side. The survivors were ashamed that they survived and so many others died. I had never even considered that. But because of it, there was an attitude of covering it up. In about 1985 it is said that perceptions changed about it, and there was a new perspective that not only the people who openly rebelled were heros. No, others who merely fed a starving person, who ran schools for people, who hid someone, they were heros too.
Because of this there was a more open feelign of needing to record the survivor's stories. Even now there are people who have never spoken of it, or who have only finally told their stories.

Next we went to a statue which the museum and memorial is famous for. I got a picture next to it. It's a story of a man who was a teacher in Germany for Jewish students, and when he had the chance to send the children off to a concentration camp (he wasn't required to go), he couldn't stand the thought of them going alone, and so he went with them. It's a bronze relief sculpture also, and you can tell that it's an abstract representation of an adult with his arms around a group of children. It was very interesting, and a story of heroism at the museum.
This is me in front of that bronze sculpture. I have a slight smile, because it is an act of heroism, even if it was really, really sad.

After that we went to the entrance of the museum and got a guided tour. We had headsets and she walked us through each exibit. The museum was built after the monument, and is dug into the hill. It's a triangular tunnel, and off to the sides of the tunnel are the exibit rooms. The main hallway of the museum is split up by "gaps" so you have to zig zag through the museum exibits, no matter the amount of time that you have.

We went through, and the exibits followed the chronology of the war. It was a really good museum. I'd say this one, the Washington D.C. Museum, and when I was at Dakau were the most powerful experiences I've had learning about the holocaust.

The last exhibit was the hardest, I think. It was all very intense...but the last, when they had liberated the camps, there was a room showing footage that was taken when they found them, with the prisoners and the pits of dead bodies and emaciated people. It was really hard to watch, and I couldn't for more than a couple minutes. It brought me to tears to see how awful humans were being treated. It was really hard to see it. I really just prayed that I could always remember that, and always remember to treat others in a kind way. I hope to always remember learning that.
This is the top of the museum, which we walked over before we went it. It's the only source of natural light in the museum.

These are two signs that we saw in the cafeteria in the basement of the museum entrance building. I thought they were so interesting, because of course it's a Jewish state, and so they have to keep things Kosher. That includes not mixing dairy products with meat products, even in the same meal. So, they had different sections for those who were eating "meat meals" and those who were eating "dairy meals" so they wouldn't be mixed. Very interesting.

After the museum we had lunch, and we were all pretty emotionally drained, but we went to Mt. Hertzl, which is a monument to a guy named Hertzl who was a spearhead in Jewish Zionism. He died before there was a Jewish state created. Anyway, they exhumed his body from his original grave and moved it to this "mountain" where he could be a symbol of the Jewish state.

This is Mt. Hertzl, and that's Ophir our Judaism professor, wearing his Kippah :). He was explaining to us about the Cedar trees, which dignitaries have come and planted the trees.

This is Hertzl's tomb, and it says "Hertzl" in Hebrew right behind me.

We actually spent a lot of time there talking about stuff, cause that's our professor's specialty....but I was exhausted so there's not a ton that I remember and really care to blog about....It was an interesting experience, but the place that I want to remember in this blog, is Yad Vashem.