Yad Vashem

Yad Vashem

Yad Vashem is Israel’s national Holocaust memorial, which was established in 1953 by the country’s parliament in accordance with the Heroes and Martyrs Law, just eight years after the conclusion of World War II and five years after the founding of the state of Israel. Yad Vashem derives its name from a biblical book verse in Isaiah that refers to an everlasting memorial. The museum is located on Har Hazikaron, a hill in the far west of Jerusalem’s semi-desert, and the name means “Mount of Remembrance” in Hebrew.The Holocaust History museum covers approximately 4,200 square meters, principally under the ground, and its protracted linear configuration, 180 meters, in the form of spears, incise through the peak with its uppermost rim, a transom that protrudes through the mountain crest (Yad Vashem, p 3).

The Bridge Tangential

The bridge tangential is the visitors’ entrance that also allows them to have a view to the light through the edifice, but feel the subjugation created by the slanting walls of the prism. The guests must follow the tortuous trail of the galleries in austere order, back and forward through the fissures in the innermost corridor’s concrete. Moreover, the fragmentary surfaces of mixed metal, bones, and ashes, cause a usual life to be awful and gives an individual a dehumanized feeling. The prominence of the structure is the Hall of Names which is a depository of the authentications of the six million Holocaust sufferers, partly still anonymous. In the middle, like a tomb is an arena which has thousands of pictures on the top bearing the names drawn from the pages of testimonies. On one of the rooms on the sides are the flags with the posters of Hitler and swastikas and they symbolize the Nazi forces.

Main Memorial and Hall of Remembrance

The main memorial Yad Vashem, an ascetic structure with a concrete wall on the lower deck, has nothing apart from the eternal flame. On the black basalt’s pavement are the engravings of the 21 fatality campsites, concentration camps, and the Nazi assassination spots within the Eastern and Central Europe, and in front of the flame is the crypt containing the ashes of the victims. The admittance to the Hall of Remembrance is the trees lining sowed in tribute to the more than sixteen-thousand non-Jews who put their lives at risk while trying to save the Jews. The Children’s cenotaph is the sculpture that is a reminiscence of about 1,500,000 Jewish kids who passed away. The memorial is an underground cavern consisting of a sinister structure having the flames of five commemoration candles proliferated exponentially with the application of mirrors (Shoah Resource Center, p 4).

Yad Vashem: Memorial and Hope

Yad Vashem is not only just a structure of dreadfulness recording destruction and death but also an accolade to remembrance and future hope. In addition to the ghettos and concentration campsites, people will always learn about the act of revolution and uprising which is inclusive of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. One will get to learn about the instants of civilization and heroism, equally in the walls of the concentration camps and the ghettos and from the people outside. The explicitly stirring element of the Yad Vashem is the Garden of the Righteous Amongst the Nations which commemorates the righteous gentiles who tried in every way possible to save the Jewish lives through the Holocaust (Ben-Sira, p 4).

Exploring the History and Significance

Paying a visit to Yad Vashem assists in constructing a comprehension of events that led to the shaping of the State of Israel in the early days. One will get a deeper understanding of the Tel Aviv’s independence through realizing that the Second World War had ended just a few years before, and knowledge of the complete degree of the Jews’ destruction in Europe. Moreover, the significance of Israel building its country in the outline of the leading endeavor to eradicate the Jews portrays the attempt to defend the individuals who are still in the disturbance. Beside the door to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum is the Herzl Mountain, Israel’s armed forces graveyard for the dead militia and the national leaders. The young soldiers sacrificed their precious lives to offer protection to their new country and people, indicating the reconstruction of the federal power and satisfaction following the dismays of the gas chambers.

Controversies and Battles

Various controversies have flared over the Yad Vashem’s character and its future; the general dispute centered on the Israeli Holocaust, the joint Holocaust study institution of the Hebrew University, and the Yad Vashem specifically. There were three major conflicts and a supplementary scuffle through the prolonged debate, the first one happened at the organization, in the press, and principally at the meetings of the institution’s Fourth International Council (Cohen 134). The war concluded with the submission of the Ben-Zion Dinur from being in charge of Yad Vashem at the start of 1959. In the second battle which occurred in the years 1960-61, there was a face to face confrontation between the institution’s directorates led by Aryeh Kubovy and the Hebrew University under the leadership of Benjamin Mazar. The Jacob Robinson’s report, as regards Yad Vashem intended for the Claims Conference was at the center of the argument, and the war also appeared in the modern press.

Preserving the Holocaust Memory

Between the initial two fights and the subsequent ones, there was the occurrence of the Eichmann Trial which significantly affected the awareness of the Israeli Holocaust and also enhanced the Yad Vashem’s status and importance in the view of the Israeli community. The third clash transpired in the commission chosen by the minister of education, Zalman Aran in the year 1964, for the assessment of the work of Yad Vashem. The group became known as the Pinkus Commission after its chairman, Aryeh Pinkus, the Jewish Agency’s treasurer, and it was also responsible for the organization’s needs at a period when the support for the Claims Conference was concluding (Cohen 134).

Recording Testimonies and Research Center

The Yad Vashem, therefore, coordinates the recording of the testimonies of those who survived, assembling the names of the people who lost their lives during the Holocaust, and also collecting the pictures, documents, and possessions as regards the Holocaust. The museum is also a research center that encourages people to explore the Holocaust as well as to hold the exhibitions (New World Encyclopedia, p 9). The several individuals who unlawfully immigrated to the Palestine just before the State became the survivors of the Holocaust and occupied the positions of the early kibbutzim. They became instrumental in making Israel what it is today, and the incidents and suffering they encountered by various means still symbolize the principles of the Israeli nation. A journey to the Yad Vashem is a critical component of any vacation to Israel and can move one into tears and at the same time will always offer hope for the future.

Works Cited

Ben-Sira, David. “Why Yad Vashem is The Single Most Important Place to Visit in Israel.” Kenes Tours, 8 Jan. 2016, kenes-tours.com/blog/why-yad-vashem-is-most-important-place-visit-israel/.

Cohen, Boaz. Israeli Holocaust Research: Birth and Evolution. Routledge, 2013, books.google.co.ke/books?id=7QFi98BF3h4C&pg=PA134&lpg=PA134&dq=the+debates+surrounding+the+yad+vashem&source=bl&ots=JhoO9xVn8M&sig=yt2Xpa-kfKvQ4ufJ8tg_PUZ3AT8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjKk6338vnXAhWBWBQKHVhtDA0Q6AEISzAF#v=onepage&q=the%20debates%20surrounding%20the%20yad%20vashem&f=false.

New World Encyclopedia. “Yad Vashem - New World Encyclopedia.” Info: Main Page - New World Encyclopedia, 31 Jan. 2014, www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Yad_Vashem.

Shoah Resource Center. “Yad Vashem the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority.” Shoah Resource Center, www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%206374.pdf.

Yad Vashem. “The Holocaust History Museum Www.yadvashem.org.” Yad Vashem, 2017, www.yadvashem.org/museum/holocaust-history-museum.html.