Ysd Vashem - A Memorial and a Name - Day 39 - Daily Content Challenge
Continuing on the theme of Remembrance Day, I want to share a memory of a visit to Jerusalem.
While teaching in Kuwait I had the opportunity to travel from Kuwait to Amman, Jordan and then cross into Israel on route to Jerusalem. I was with three other colleagues. We were two Canadians, one Australian and one Kiwi (New Zealander). We had the opportunity to visit Yad Vashem.
Yad Vashem means ‘a memorial and a name’ and it is a museum and a memorial to victims of the Holocaust. Yad Vashem sits on the slopes of the Mount of Remembrance. Yad Vashem started as an organization in 1953 to document the memory of Holocaust victims.
The new Yad Vashem Museum opened in 2005. Its nine chilling galleries of interactive historical displays present the history of the Jewish people during the Holocaust for remembrance by future generations.
The museum leads into the Hall of Names, containing over three million names of Holocaust victims. These names come from their families and relatives.
There are other memorials you can visit on the Yad Vashem campus. One I vividly remember is Yad Layeled, the children’s memorial which commemorates the one and a half million Jewish children who perished in the Holocaust.
The Memorial to the Deportees is a railroad car hanging over the cliff on the road. This commemorates those who were deported.
There are over 2,000 trees on the Avenue of the Righteous Among the Nations. The trees stand in honor of non-Jews who risked their lives in order to rescue Jews from the Nazis.
Yad Vashem is not an easy museum to visit. It is heart wrenching but definitely an important site to visit in order to understand the true scale and impact of the Holocaust. Entry to Yad Vashem is free. I encourage anyone who has the opportunity to go to Jerusalem to include a visit to Yad Vashem on their itinerary.
Read more about my travels to Jordan and Jerusalem in my Travelling Tuesdays book. You can claim your copy today. Â
