Yad Vashem

This week, I finished my visit with Yad Vashem. I stook my time reading all the plaques and looking at the pictures. I could feel myself losing focus and because I wanted to be able to absorb everything, I left after learning about Hitler's power and the rise of Nazis. Afterwards, I went to the Hall of Remembrance where the names of each concentration camp are laid out. It wasn't until the next day the I learned about the fate of two of the camps. Belzec had only one survivor and that Chelmno only had three survivors. These two facts had a big impact on me. Survivors I have heard speak were in Bergen-Belsen, Auschwitz, Dachau, or Treblinka. It never even occurred to me that these two camps, which I don't recall learning about by name, would have so few survivors.

In addition, one of the posters included information on the Nazi's next move. However, the war luckily ended before they could be put through. The plans included, by country, how many Jews they wanted to kill by the end of the next year. Most of the countries were in the hundred thousands. There was one country, I can't remember which one, but I think it was somewhere in Northern Europe, where the number listed was 200. The fact that this number even made the list is incomprehensible. They were so into their goal that everything mattered. Even this one little country.

One last thing that I had only heard small details about is the Einsatzgruppen. One specific operation killed over 30,000 Jews in two days. Or, a whole city completely wiped out. One SS officer wrote a letter to his wife and son that the first killing was hard, but after that it became habit. Habit! Everything I have learned about the bystander effect and group mentality in terms of the Holocaust is completely wiped away. Telling people to dig their own graves and to undress near it so that they will fall right in when they are shot is beyond inhumane. That's not group mentality, that's your own mind becoming insane.

The Nuremburg Trials were supposed to convict Nazis. One time when I learned about the Holocaust, my teacher asked us if the factory workers making Zyklon-B should be put on trial. Or if the train drivers. Technically, they didn't point the gun, but both workers had a big part in killing the Jews.

Though Yad Vashem is depressing, there is a certain spirit that I felt as I walked back outside after going through the museum. The inside of the building is full of dark terrible nightmares describing slaughters and mass murdering. But outside, the golden sun shimmers off the building. A garden winds through the Jerusalem forest towards Mount Herzel. The triangular building over looks Ein Kerem. I walked outside into the conclusion. It's very hard describe. I have been to the museum in DC and while the museum is good you don't get the same sense of pride as when you walk out the doors. When you walk out onto the DC streets you continue living as an American. But stepping out into the Israel air, you are continuing life as a Jew.