4/1/2011 - Yad Vashem

We then traveled to Yad Vashem - the Holocaust memorial.  We began our tour by walking into the Children's Memorial - a room lit by five small candles reflected in mirrors as the names of some of the 1.5 million children killed are recited.

After leaving the Children's Memorial, we made our way to the main museum that walks you through the timeline from the beginning of antisemitism in Europe through the liberation of the camps by the Allied Forces.  There are many rooms with poignant displays and videos that take into great detail the humiliation and pains pressed upon the Jews and Gypsies all across Europe.  One of the displays included Schindler's List.

The Nazis created their theories on the ideas that the Jews were going to take over the world so they must be eliminated.  Much of the antisemitic actions arose from the times of St. Peter who was proselytizing for Jesus among the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah.  The Jews wouldn't accept Jesus as the Messiah at that time or ever.  This theory was carried forward by St. Augustine stating that the Jews were a retched people that shouldn't be killed, but instead tortured and tormented.  This, of course, was carried forward by Hitler with his plan for an Aryan Nation without any Jews.  Amazingly, as in the past and into the future, the Jews have remained a strong people, surviving many obstacles and opponents.

Upon leaving the main museum building, you look upon a beautiful vista of JNF (Jewish National Fund) forests and the cities surrounding Jerusalem.

The entrance to the Children's Memorial.