Israel Says Never Again With New Holocaust Museum

Jerusalem----March 13....It is not the Eurovision TV song festival or the Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball team entering the finals of the European championship. There are no ads or promos on Israel television. It is an event which entered my email box as hundreds do from the Israel Government Press Office. But this event was quite different. It talked about a new holocaust museum opening in Jerusalem.

At first I questioned if this was a new wing or an extension dedicated by a wealthy contributor in the US or Europe. The answer I just received from Estee Yaari, a spokesperson of Yad Vashem (the Hebrew name of the museum), was that this was a new museum which was ten years in the making and was now going to replace the old. "All of the memorials will remain intact," said Yaari. This includes the children's memorial and the hall of names."

Israel's holocaust museum, Yad Veshem, defines the very essence of modern Israel's very existence. Located in the wooden hills of ancient Jerusalem, it is usually the first place that many heads of state and tourists visit when coming to and paying respect to Israel. It is holy and sacred ground, where the souls of over 6 million Jews are remembered. One only hears a dreadful silence which is broken by people crying as you walk through the grounds and view the pictures and artifacts - testimony to those who were gunned down, hanged or gassed to death. The new museum will be four times the size of the prior exhibit which was established by Israel's Knesset in 1953.

"The new museum will draw upon two themes," said Yaari. "The Jewish perspective and the personal, with individual accounts being highlighted and documented with pictures, recordings, clothes taken from the gas chambers, hair which was cut for wigs and bars made from human soap."

Heads of State and government from at least 40 countries, as well as United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and dozens of other nations' leaders and dignitaries, will join Israeli President Moshe Katzav, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and Education Minister Limor Livnat in inaugurating the new Museum on March 15.

When asked if Israel's neighbors Jordan and Egypt and the Palestinians were invited, Mark Regev, a spokesperson of the Israel Foreign Ministry told the Israel News Agency that only those countries which had a direct tie to the holocaust were invited.

The New Israel Holocaust History Museum will be inaugurated first with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday afternoon, followed by official tours of the Museum and a ceremony that evening, featuring Katsav, Sharon, Livnat, Annan, Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council Prof. Shevach Weiss and Nobel Laureate Prof. Elie Wiesel. Following a brief early morning memorial service Wednesday in the Museum's new Hall of Names, the special assembly, Remembering the Past, Shaping the Future, will feature remarks from the heads of more than 35 delegations, their Israeli hosts and a number of leading Israeli intellectuals. They will raise their voices to the world in a call for safeguarding the memory and meaning of the Shoah - Holocaust for future generations, and for a rise to action against renewed anti-Semitism and intolerance.

Four times the size of the current Historical Museum in Israel, the New Holocaust History Museum at Yad Vashem will have two dimensions, informational and experiential. The New Museum will use many artifacts in telling the story, alongside the documentary element familiar in the current museum. It will try to tell both the macro story and the micro stories of individuals and small groups, stressing the personal story in the historical and thematic narrative.

The New Holocaust History Museum covers some 4,200 square meters. The New Museum is Yad Vashem's main platform for imparting the legacy of the Shoah to visitors. It tells the story of the Shoah from the point of view of the Jews; the victims are the focus, instead of being portrayed as anonymous objects being acted upon by their persecutors. Visitors will leave with a wider perspective on the protection of humanity's basic values and Jewish continuity. The new Holocaust History Museum is a revolution in Holocaust memory. Making the individual victim the center of its story, the Museum weaves more than 90 personal stories into a thematic and historical narrative. Using authentic artifacts, testimonies, documentary evidence, archival sources, films, art and even music, the museum tells the story of the Holocaust through the voice of the individual.

"It is impossible to understand the Holocaust and absorb its meaning without learning about those who were most directly affected - the Jews," explains Avner Shalev, who is also Chief Curator of the New Museum. "As such, we have made every effort to present a full picture of the Shoah - every artifact, document, story and picture that would give the visitor a sense of what the Shoah was and who the people were who experienced it was carefully considered. With more than 2,500 items in the museum, we tried to include both the unique and the representative."

These means of expression help the visitor grasp and contend with the almost inconceivable nature of the Jewish Holocaust. Individual stories illustrate entire historical themes and events, bringing out the human dimension more than ever before. This Museum in Israel is designed to give the visitor an overall impression of the time, places and atmosphere in which the Shoah occurred. Unique settings, spaces with varying heights and differing degrees of lighting accentuate focal points of the unfolding narrative.

Exhibits focus on the daily life of the Jews - the persecution, impossible choices, attempts to retain a semblance of humanity and impending death. From the opening chapter - dedicated to the pre-war European Jewish world - through the epilogue - portraying original manuscripts written by Jews during the Holocaust period - the artifacts, writings and artwork of the victims tell the story of the Holocaust from a unique Jewish perspective. Bringing out the human dimension of the tragedy more than ever before, the Jews are portrayed as the living subjects of unprecedented persecution, not merely objects upon whom the Nazis conducted their genocidal policy. The Museum also uses genuine artifacts to give visitors an impression of the world that existed at the time. Near the beginning of the narrative, for example, visitors can walk around a typical living room of a Jewish family in Germany during the 1930s, recreated from belongings donated by a number of such families.

Aside from artifacts, the exhibits also include some 100 video screens showing original film clips from before and during the Shoah, new survivor testimonies, and short documentaries produced specifically for the new Museum. In keeping with Israel Yad Vashem's new conception of stressing the individual at the center of the story, the Hall of Names has been reconstituted and moved into the new Museum. At the end of the Museum's historical narrative is the Hall - a repository for the Pages of Testimony of millions of Holocaust victims, a memorial to those who perished. In a separate room, visitors can conduct searches of the digitized Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names (also online at www.yadvashem.org).

Visitors enter the Hall in the circular space between two reciprocal cones onto an elevated ring-shaped platform between them. Surrounding the platform is the circular repository, housing the Pages of Testimony collected so far, with empty spaces for testimonies not yet submitted - room for six million Pages in total. World-renowned architect Moshe Safdie designed a unique building for the new Museum. "The story of the Holocaust has no equal," Safdie says. "I felt that it cannot be accommodated in a conventional building. I wanted it to be like an archeological remnant. Responding to Yad Vashem's request to preserve the pastoral character of the Mount of Remembrance, and that the Hall of Remembrance - the focus of commemoration of past years - maintain its centrality, I conceived of a prism-like structure that cuts through the mountain from the south, extending 200 meters to the north." "The galleries," says Safdie, "accommodating the exhibits designed by Dorit Harel, straddle the prismþ, as skylights penetrate upwards through the landscape, bringing daylight to the depth of the Museum. The path culminates in the Hall of Names. It is surrounded by files containing Pages of Testimony with the names of victimsþ. A suspended cone rises above - with photos of the victims - with a reciprocal cone excavated into the bedrock down to ground water, in memory of those whose names will never be known. The prism bursts out of the mountain, cantilevering to the north, to light, to the view of the Jerusalem hills, an affirmation of life."

A basic guideline for the museum's design was to create a visitor's route dictated by the evolving narrative-with a beginning, middle and end. As such, Safdie devised a central walkway (prism) with underground exhibition galleries on either side. The visitor is guided into the adjacent galleries by a series of impassable gaps, created by museum designer Dorit Harel, extending along the breadth of the prism floor. Displaying items from different events, the gaps symbolize turning points in the Holocaust, and serve as chapter headings for the evolving narrative of the exhibition. Subtly illuminated by skylights, nine chapters (galleries) depict the history of the Shoah through exclusive exhibits and new presentation techniques. The New Museum is designed to give the visitor an overall impression of the time, places and atmosphere in which the Holocaust occurred. Unique settings, spaces with varying heights and differing degrees of illumination accentuate focal points of the unfolding narrative. Concrete, understated natural light and previously unseen museum content create a vivid sense of the human experience of the Shoah.

The first chapter after the Museum's entrance examines Nazi Germany and its anti-Jewish policies until the outbreak of WWII. Subsequent chapters mark the start of the War and the beginning of the destruction of Jewish life in Poland, the fate of Jews in Western Europe and the experience in the Ghettos [of Eastern Europe]. The "Final Solution" is examined in two chapters, including the Museum's largest, which deals with its implementation and with Jewish resistance in the Ghettos. Further Jewish resistance, rescue attempts and the Righteous Among the Nations follow. Visitors are then exposed to the horrific concentration camp universe and to the death marches. The last narrative chapter is dedicated exclusively to the She'erit Hapleita (lit. the surviving remnant). "The great challenge in designing the new Museum was meeting the basic perception of the museum curators - to present historical information and personal experiences from the Holocaust, while simultaneously creating a multi-sensory experience and a sense of identification with the Jewish world that was destroyed," points out Harel. "That's why it's particularly poignant that the new Hall of Names is now part of the Museum. I chose to design the upper cone of the Hall with 600 photos of victims and fragments of Pages of Testimony. As one looks up at the photos, showing a cross-section of Jewish life in Europe before the Holocaust, you see children, adults, the elderly, soldiers, rabbis, families. After walking through the Museum, here the visitor once again comes face to face with the victims." Uniquely in the Israel Holocaust History Museum, art also plays an important role.

The Museum contains more than 280 works of art - sketches and paintings - some by known artists such as Felix Nussbaum, Marcel Janco, Charlotte Solomon, Hellmut Bachrach-Baree, and others by lesser-known and unknown artists. "Art is an important medium, reflecting the multi-dimensional, inner world of the victims, while helping depict historical events," says Shalev. "Using art in the new Museum mirrors Yad Vashem's multidisciplinary approach in perpetuating the memory of, and teaching about, the Holocaust."

Video art also plays an unusual role in the new Museum, portraying an entire historical theme as well as the Museum's epilogue. The opening exhibit consists entirely of a video art display created by the Israeli artist Michal Rovner. It uses original historical visuals to portray the richness of Jewish life in Europe on the eve of its destruction by the Nazi regime. Projected onto the massive triangular wall at the Museum's entrance, it immerses the visitor in the world of ordinary people leading everyday lives within their communities and in the surrounding society.

The Museum's epilogue is also a video art display, String, - this one created by the artist Uri Tzaig - using original manuscripts, handwritten diaries, letters, notes and memoirs - written by Jews during the Holocaust period and by survivors afterwards. In one corner of the gallery, a "virtual" notebook with turning pages shows the manuscripts in their original handwriting, while another wall shows randomly floating letters from which appear illuminated sentences - the thoughts and reflections of Jews during the Shoah. "The Holocaust is not a closed chapter in human history, but rather an integral component in the development of our culture and the fashioning of our existence," says Shalev. "From the Mount of Remembrance in Jerusalem, Yad Vashem is both a warning beacon against repetition of the extreme evil of the past, and a light of hope for the future."

In addition to the Israel Holocaust History Museum, the New Museum Complex includes a Museum of Holocaust Art, containing the world's largest repository of Holocaust-era art - with the first database in the world dedicated to Holocaust art - an Exhibitions Pavilion, Synagogue, Learning Center and Visual Center. They are physically integrated into the unique setting of Yad Vashem's 45-acre Campus on the Mount of Remembrance, in harmony with Yad Vashem's other remembrance sites and documentation, research and educational facilities. The Israel Holocaust Art Museum will also be dedicated on March 15, and each of the other components of the Museum Complex will opened throughout the spring and summer. Funding for the New Museum Complex comes from the generous support of private donors through the American Society of Yad Vashem and other Yad Vashem Societies in Israel and around the world, the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, and the Government of Israel.

The New Holocaust History Museum in Israel is the pinnacle of Yad Vashem's multiyear development plan. This redevelopment includes the establishment of an International School for Holocaust Studies, an International Institute for Holocaust Research, a new, modern Archives and Library building and the digitization of Yad Vashem, laying the groundwork for the internet launch of the Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names, as well as a new entrance and visitors' complex - all of which opened in the last decade - and now, the New Museum Complex.

"The founders of Yad Vashem were survivors of the Holocaust. They knew their story. They didn't need to show their story. They needed to show what the Nazis did," said a spokesperson. "We came many years later and we needed to show both the story of Nazism and within that - the Jewish story." To personalize the Holocaust, Inbar and her team wove first-hand accounts using personal effects and testimonies from survivors and victims into the historic narrative detailing the rise of Nazism in 1933 until Israel's establishment in 1948. "We gave the victims an identity. We gave them a voice. We gave them a face," she said. "We did the same thing to the Nazis ... For each one we showed who they were. That they were not monsters but people who did monstrous things."

While I'd be interested in viewing pre-Nazi Jewish life and history, I think it would break my heart to view what man can do to man. I've read about the atrocities and they horrify me, I just don't know if I could follow the path laid out in the museum knowing what will happen.

Never Again!

FRmail me to be added or removed from this Israel Defense Forces and Israel ping list. Here you will find news, articles and fascinating stories about the IDF and Israel.

We do not need more memorials to dead Jews. What we need are more institutions (day schools, yeshivos, seminaries) to educate and prepare the next generation to LIVE as Jews.

Otherwise these museums are meaningless.

FRmail me to be added or removed from this Judaic/pro-Israel ping list.

WARNING: This is a high volume ping list

Is there a memorial or museum in Germany that deals with the mass killings of Jews and approximately an equal number of others who were not Jews?
Does anyone know why the principal Holocaust Museum is in Washington, DC, far removed from the land of the killings?
Forever wondering.

"Does anyone know why the principal Holocaust Museum is in Washington, DC, far removed from the land of the killings?
Forever wondering."

The U.S. Museum is not the "principal museum." Yad VaShaem was there much before the U.S. Holocaust Museum. Building the U.S. Holocaust Museum, a truly excellent, interesting museum which all should visit - it takes two days to go through properly or at least one full day - was intended to teach the history of the Holocaust, but also to teach the lesson for all peoples of all times. It's message is to remember, so as never to forget.

The Holocaust directly affected not only the limited number of survivors who came to U.S. shores, having lost their own families and having gone through a living hell themselves, but also affected the other millions of Jews throughout the world, who lost European relatives in the Holocaust - uncles, cousins distant and near, etc.

Meanwhile Sharon is going to evict Jews from 'Eretz Yisra'el in order to make room for a "palestinian state" and Har HaBayit, the holiest spot on earth, continues to bear the greatest tum'ah (uncleanness).

I suppose if one rejects HaShem and the Torah that the Holocaust takes its place as the national foundation. But ironically it is the Holocaust with which Israel is continually hit over the head by such esteemed "mourners of the Jews" as Kofi Annan and the European diplomats.

Not to downplay the importance of Churban 'Europa' in Jewish history, but the idea that Yad Vashem rather than Har HaBayit is sacred center of the State of Israel speaks reams about the secular nationalism that is now bone dead and has given way to self-hatred.

THE principal and original Holocaust museum was built in Jerusalem in 1953. But it's important for all generations to come that other Holocaust museums are build in cities throughout the world.

"Never Again"

THE principal and original Holocaust museum was built in Jerusalem in 1953. But it's important for all generations to come that other Holocaust museums are build in cities throughout the world.

"Never Again"

The world needs the Kingdom of G-d that will be established by Mashiach HaMelekh. Until that day comes the world will know evil and bloodshed and tragedy.

We don't need a Holocaust museum in every city. All we need is the Beit HaMiqdash in its place and the Holy `Avodah being performed once again, as written in the Holy Torah.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.