Yad Vashem

Yesterday we went to the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem. It is the Holocaust museum of all Holocaust museums. The museum was a large triangular shaped building, representing half of the star of David. Only half the star is represented to show how the Holocaust had left the Jews, dehumanized and broken. The beginning of the tour took place above ground, representing life, specifically life before the Holocaust. Then the tour takes you underground for the Holocaust years and then you end up above ground again where life after the Holocaust was shown. The first thing we saw was a projected collage of film clips taken throughout Europe in the years preceeding the Holocaust. There were two beautiful little girls waving into the camera, the most adorable girls with big bows in their hair and precious little dresses. Just as I realized that they were about Ellie's age, the tour guide reminded us that these girls did not live to see the next decade. I knew it was going to be a long tour at that point. The biggest thing I learned during the tour was that all of this horror was caused because Germans put their trust in a man, Adolf Hitler, who promised (and succeeded) in pulling Germany out of a depression. A bad economy... ring a bell? Because these people had no where else to turn, their children were hungry, so they were loyal to an evil man. It made me really think about the decisions I would make in desperation, which made me so grateful that the church tells us to be prepared for an emergency.

On and on we walked through the exhibits of the museum, moving through history. I am such a girl and am thereby affected by different things than most people. Shoes. Shoes got the best of me. There was one room that had a whole pile of shoes under the floor with a glass you could stand on and look down into. As I looked at the shoes, I began picking out the ones I thought were cute. I could just picture a girl dressed fashionably with shoes that I would love, being told to strip and get into the gas chambers, and never returning to get her shoes. I can't explain it, but through looking at those shoes, I understood that these were real people who never did a thing to deserve what horrible things others inflicted on them.

My favorite memorial was a room dedicated to the children who died. It was a room filled with hundreds of mirrors, and pitch black with one single candle burning in the middle of the room. The tour guide said the mirrors made the candle reflect about 5 million times. It was so beautiful. On the speakers in the room, childrens names were being read with their age of death. It was such a peaceful room, I actually loved being in there. After the emotionally draining museum, this memorial was so calming and beautiful.