Yad Vashem

July 5, 2013  Friday

Friday is our day off, and today we went to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial site in southwest Jerusalem.  We were here in 2003, but wanted to come again.  It was a very solemn experience.

We took the light rail to the end of the line.  This piece of public art marks the last stop.

There was supposed to be a shuttle bus to take us up the hill, but it never showed up.  We decided to walk up the hill.

 The entrance to the museum complex is striking.

Photos are not allowed inside the buildings, but many are available online.  The museum traces the history of modern anti-semitism, taking visitors from room to room through stark corridors.

This link includes a slide show of the complex:  http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/museum/index.asp

The timeline ended at the Hall of Names, an archive of the names and available information of every known Holocaust victim.

Since it was Friday, and Sabbath would begin at Sunday, the museum closed at 2 p.m.  We had spent so much time in the history section that we had to hurry out and skip some of the parts of the museum complex.  Nevertheless, it was a worthwhile experience.

It's easy to wonder how these events could ever happen.  How could an entire ethnic/religious group come to be seen as subhuman and not worthy of life and liberty?  Could something like this ever happen again?  Unfortunately I think we've seen it in our lifetimes in Rwanda, for example.

The well-known poem by German anti-Nazi Christian theologian and Holocaust survivor Martin Niemöller was quoted in the museum and is so meaningful:

     First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out--
    Because I was not a Socialist.

    Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out--
    Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

    Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
    Because I was not a Jew.

    Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me.

We left with a greater resolve to "speak out".

Our last stop of the day was Machane Yehuda Market, a shopping/business district that is one of the stops on the light rail.  We had an Israeli dinner at a little street cafe.

We started with pocket bread, hummus, and various embellishments.  Pete ordered a goulash dish, shown in this photo.

I ordered kebabs, which were essentially small meatloaves.  There was no skewer.  It was all very tasty, and certified to be kosher.

This photo, taken on our walk from the train station to the hotel, is a view into an apparently abandoned archaeological site called the "Tomb of the Kings."  We don't know why it isn't being maintained.