May 10, 2002

Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum

[East Jerusalem, Palestine] If you need a nice pick-me-up when you visit Jerusalem, I suggest you avoid Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum. It's a terrible (but necessary and important) place. At the end of your visit, you will feel spiritless. Museum displays will drain all life from you. Yesterday I joined a group of four who toured the various buildings. We read stories of ghettoes and death camps in Europe. Stories of survivors and those who did not survive. Stories of atrocities too numerous and terrible to mention. We saw sickening photos and read ugly reports. And we heard stories of knowing nations who did nothing to stop the tragedy.

While I was there, I jotted down some of the text from displays in the museum:

• "Jews under German occupation were subjected to a wave of violence, as German forces humiliated and physically abused them at random"
• "places of business and apartments belonging to Jews may be destroyed but not looted" Security Police Chief Reinhard Heydrich's instructions to police, Nov. 10, 1938
• "Further isolating and impoverishing the Jews, additional edicts in the autumn of 1939 forced them out of the economy, cut their food rations, initiated the confiscation of their property, and required them to wear Jewish Star of David, a yellow badge or other distinguishing signs."
• "Thousands of Jews were concentrated in 'Jewish reservations', isolating them geographically."
• "The anti-Jewish laws that were enacted in Germany were accompanied by officially sanctioned acts of violence."
• "Expelled from Germany and denied entry to Poland, Jews were stranded at the border. Upon hearing that his family was among them 17-year old Hershel Grynszpan shot Ernst vom Rath of the German Embassy in Paris in revenge. With the news of vom Rath's death, Nazi leaders organized a nationwide pogrom, which they claimed was spontaneous."
• "Arrest of Polish citizens by German occupation forces: Commonplace throughout Poland, such arrests served to oppress and terrorize the local population."

These acts were the precursors to the much more serious activities later. The situation became really nasty when the Jews were shipped to the forced labor and death camps. 6,000,000 important lives lost in appalling circumstances. So tragic, so terrible, and so sad.

The Jewish people have been through a horrendous and shocking experience. Truly horrifying. And if there's anything to learn from that grave happening, it's that the world must remain vigilant to never allow something dreadful like that to occur to any people again.