Yad Vashem is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. We visited Yad Vashem in the afternoon of our second day (and first full day) of the seminar, shortly after touring Mt. Zion, home to the Room of the Last Supper, King David's Tomb, the Chamber of the Holocaust, the Protestant Cemetery, and Dormition Abbey (also Maje, our tour guide, blasted "Iron Lion Zion" by Bob Marley the whole way up the mountain).
The museum is dedicated to preserving the memory of the dead; honoring Jews who fought against their Nazi oppressors and Gentiles who selflessly aided Jews in need; and researching the phenomenon of the Holocaust in particular and genocide in general, with the aim of avoiding such events in the future. It was one of the most eye-opening experiences we had on the seminar and certainly my favorite museum of all-time.
The Architecture
The museum was designed by architect Moshe Safdie and is shaped like a triangular prism that penetrates the mountain it resides in from one side to the other. Throughout the prism, the triangular cross-section varies, becoming narrower at the center, but as the route nears its northern exit of the museum, the floor begins to ascend and the triangle opens up again, with the exit bursting forth from the mountain’s slope to a dramatic view of modern-day Jerusalem. I wish I had captured the museum architecture on camera, but there was a strict no-photography policy throughout the entire museum (except for the last exhibition, the Hall of Names).
The Tour Guide
Our entire group was split into two smaller groups, each led throughout the museum by a tour guide. I am usually not a fan of tour groups because I tend to tune out to what the guide is saying or the group moves too slow/too fast for my liking. This tour guide was different. Unfortunately, I have forgotten this man's name, but this man greatly enhanced the entire museum experience. We didn't have time to stop at every image, artifact, or video, but he chose a handful of particular sections throughout the museum to stop and really dive deep into an anecdote or the specific sequence of events or the detail of a certain object or clip. I wish we had three or four or five more hours in the museum with this man.
The Children's Memorial
After the main museum, instead of going directly back to the main entrance, we stopped at a what looked like a stone cavern. This was the Children's Memorial, a hollowed memorial from an underground cavern and a tribute to approximately 1.5 million Jewish children. When we walked in, memorial candles, a customary Jewish tradition to remember the dead, are reflected infinitely in a dark and somber space, creating the impression of millions of stars shining in the firmament. The names of the children, their ages, and the countries of origin can be heard in the background. Our tour guide told us before entering to "Just try to remember one name, their age, and where they are from. Just one."
The Content
As one can imagine, the content of this museum was incredibly heavy, and I don't think I was prepared for the emotional weight of the museum at 1pm in the afternoon of our first real day of the seminar. The images and clips were real and explicit, and the stories we heard from our tour guide were shocking and devastating. I won't go into detail of specific things I heard or saw, but I definitely walked away from the museum feeling impacted.
The rest of the day was spent reflecting on the experience with the other MIT students - what were our expectations of the museum prior to entering and how we felt after seeing the exhibitions - busing to Caesarea where we spent the night, eating dinner by the sunset (I ate 3 nectarines), and hearing a lecture from Dr. Shany Mor on Israeli politics (frankly, I tuned out during this lecture and cannot write exactly the content that was shared). Picture below from the day's activities.
*Photos 1 and 2 were again, taken by the lovely Wilson Spearman.
