We are leaving for Galilee in 3 days and I am trying to get caught up on my blogging (which is really just posting pictures) before we leave. I'll be gone for 11 days and then when we get back we will only have 2 1/2 weeks left at the JC, time flies!
About two weeks ago we went to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum here in Jerusalem. As I'm sure you can imagine, this was a very moving experience to read and learn more about this tragedy in a land where so many families have ties to the victims. We spent about 2 1/2 hours in the actual museum which was emotional and informative. A few parts of the museum were especially tragic; in one room, glass floors were covering large piles of victims' shoes and in another, a small scale detailed replica of the gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Although the museum was not uplifting I believe it is important for people to understand what happened, however hard it is to fathom.
The most difficult part of the whole day for me was the 3 minutes we spent walking through the Children's memorial at Yad Vashem. It was after the museum and I finally broke down and cried a little. In an almost completely dark hall, you walk along pictures of Jewish children and in the next room, candles strategically placed to reflect their light in the hundreds of mirrors all over the walls and ceiling. It seemed as if I was surrounded by hundreds of stars or little flames, those children who will not be forgotten.
All in all, it was an interesting field trip but I don't think I would do it again. I learned a lot and took very few pictures, here are a few outside and inside the first building at Yad Vashem. The names on the floor are the names of the concentration/death camps and an eternal flame will burn in this room forever.
