(sculpture in the outside garden at Yad VeShem)
The most wide-ranging museum dedicated to the Jewish Holocaust, in the world.
It is an intense, saddening, heart-rending several hours, wandering through the exhibit on Thursday afternoon. As a museum, it is modern, of superb quality, technologically superior. All superlatives that are so difficult to apply with much energy of praise to a remembrance of one of the most awful, horrific events of any time in recorded history. The artifacts, the letters, the videos, the dolls, the shoes, the bunks, the human hair, the weapons, the larger-than-life displays of photographs and posters and videos of concentration camps, Nazis, people, and death. Written and visual depictions of humanity at its worst moment.
The most wide-ranging museum dedicated to the Jewish Holocaust, in the world.
It is an intense, saddening, heart-rending several hours, wandering through the exhibit on Thursday afternoon. As a museum, it is modern, of superb quality, technologically superior. All superlatives that are so difficult to apply with much energy of praise to a remembrance of one of the most awful, horrific events of any time in recorded history. The artifacts, the letters, the videos, the dolls, the shoes, the bunks, the human hair, the weapons, the larger-than-life displays of photographs and posters and videos of concentration camps, Nazis, people, and death. Written and visual depictions of humanity at its worst moment.
You wind a zig-zag path, walking from exhibit room to exhibit room of detailed and visually stunning historical documentation. All the while, you are left with a constant state of watering eyes, flashes of deep anger and fury, and utterly deep sadness and mourning. A psychological tour that leaves you educaated and totally exhausted and emotionally spent by the time you slowly make your exit outside onto a slightly inclined concrete ramp at the end, a panoramic terrace that offers a healing view of the Judean Mountains, providing a view for miles over the hills of Jerusalem. An architectural coup, but one that simply allows you to give thanks for the fresh air and take a few moments to collect your thoughts. It is a place where no one talks.
I had been to the Holocaust Museum in Washington with two of my children, Molly and John, in the summer of 2007, and there are similarities. This was however, was so much more intense.
I had been to the Holocaust Museum in Washington with two of my children, Molly and John, in the summer of 2007, and there are similarities. This was however, was so much more intense.
An excellent two-minute clip from YouTube gives you an exact video walking tour, from beginning to end through the museum, so you can see it all in 120 seconds and not two hours.....even the terrace view at the end:
A webiste also gives a good overview and samples of the musuem:
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