"Yad Vashem is the monument of a nation's grief. It gives moving testimony to the unparalleled violence which afflicted the Jewish people at the hands of Nazi Germany, leaving a vast legacy of death and suffering in its wake. Yad Vashem is therefore one of the most significant landmarks in the moral history of mankind. It merits the reverence and support of free people everywhere." Abba Eban
Your visit to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority will leave you without words but with a stronger understanding of the tumultuous events of 1933-45.
Yad Vashem defines its task as " perpetuating the legacy of the Holocaust to future generations so that the world never forgets the horrors and cruelty of the Holocaust. Its principal missions are commemoration and documentation of the events of the Holocaust, collection, examination and publication of testimonies to the Holocaust, the collection and memorialization of the names of Holocaust victims, research and education."
By visiting Yad Vashem with birthright/ Oranim you will be one of the two million people that visit Yad Vashem annually and will become part of the process of remembrance, learning and understanding.
Among many of the places to visit in Yad Vashem are:
The Historical Museum. When entering this museum you will be transported back to 1933 and escorted by the use of photographs, artifacts, documents and audio-visual aids the tragic history of massacre of Jews in the Second world War. The museum is presented chronologically and explains how Nazi anti-Jewish policies from persecution to ghettoization led finally to systematic mass murder. The display remembers those who fought the Nazis.
The Hall of Remembrance is a place of self-reflection which allows you to remember those who died in the holocaust. On the floor are the names of the six death camps and some of the concentration camps and killing sites throughout Europe. The Children's Memorial is a new addition to the Yad Vashem Complex. The memorial is "hollowed out from an underground cavern, where memorial candles, a customary Jewish tradition to remember the dead, are reflected infinitely in a dark and somber space." This is a powerful tribute to the approximately one and a half million Jewish children who were murdered during the Holocaust.
The Valley of the Communities helps a visitor understand the size of the massacre of world Jewry. As its name suggests this memorial is literrally a valley of 21/2 acre. Engraved on the immense stone walls of the monument are the names of over five thousand Jewish communities that were annihilated.
The Avenue and Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations honors the non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews.
The Memorial to the Deportees is an original cattle-car which was used to transport thousands of Jews to the death camps. "Perched on the edge of an abyss facing the Jerusalem forest, the monument symbolizes both the impending horror, and the rebirth which followed the Holocaust."
Art Museum through art we can express what the word cannot. This exhibition includes works of art that were created during the Holocaust and a selection of works from after the war by Holocaust survivors and by other artists.
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