In Israel there is a memorial building called Yad Vashem. The words Yad Vashem mean ‘a monument and a name’. It is a memorial to everybody who died and is a museum to educate people and show how people suffered. Inside the building there is an avenue for non-Jews, there is a tree planted for every non- Jew that tried to help the Jews. This avenue is there because the Jews felt really isolated during the war and help from non-Jews meant a lot to them. Another room is a hall of names. Predictably it has all the names of every Jew that they have been told of who died as a result of the Holocaust. This is a way of remembering every one as an individual and to try and restore their dignity that the Nazi’s took away. This is instead of tombstones; it is really for the families of persecuted Jews. So they know that their ancestor has been remembered. There is an ongoing quest to find the names of Jews that were persecuted. This task is recognised with the motto ‘Unto every person there is a name’. I find that even the name of the task is strong in its wording. It also represents one of the Jewish mitzvah of hope because they have hope that they will find the names and details of everybody that died. The name given to the list of names is the ‘Pages of Testimony’. In a conference at Yad Vashem the leader of the Konvo Jewish Council. For each person commemorated in the Hall the following information is stated “On these special acid-free Pages are inscribed in full: the name of the victim, his or her date and place of birth, the place of residence before the war, the profession, the parents' and spouses' names, and where and when they perished during the Holocaust. A photograph is attached when available. The Pages are preserved in special ‘Yizkor files’, classified according to the Hebrew alphabet by the family name and the first name of the victim.” This is a quote from the Yad Vashem web site. Another room in the building remembers all the children that died in concentration camps. The room is pitch black apart from the flickering of candles. There is only one candle in the room although; it is reflected many times by mirrors so it looks like there are thousands. Each reflection represents every child that died I the concentration camps. On the floor are the names of the concentration camps. I tape recorded voice recites all the names of the children. I think that Yad Vashem is really clever the way that they try to remember everybody as individuals not just as a main categorised group called ‘Jews’. So it is saying that everybody had a different story and no Jews were to blame for what happened.
In Israel they have a national day called Yom Ha Shoah. This is not a festival but a fasting to mourn the six million Jews that were killed. The day is on 27th of Nisan at sunset and ends the next day at sunset according to the Jewish calendar. This day is on the 8-9th of April on our calendar. In Israel the day is very solemn and all places of entertainment are closed. There are memorials all over the country and the ones at Yad Vashem are broadcast across the country. In the morning a siren is alarmed for two minutes, names of the dead are read out and wreaths are laid throughout the country. At Yad Vashem one of the things that they do is get a group of people, which often includes the president of the country, survivors and families of those who died. They light six torches that represent the six million Jews that died. Other places that hold remembrance are usually the Ghetto fighters Kibbutz, Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, schools, military bases and places of work. In Britain there is also a ‘Holocaust Memorial Day’. This year it was held on January the 27th. There has only ever been two remembrance days in Britain. The aim of the day is to of course remember the Holocaust but to also give out the message of ‘inclusiveness, respect and contemporary relevance – and will set the tone for a range of school and community activities throughout the UK’. The event took place in the evening in Manchester. There were poets, an orchestra and a choir. People that attended were political leaders, faith representatives, survivors, young people and celebrities. As can be seen the event was highly based on educating the younger generation. This was probably done in the hope that teaching people will prevent this kind of event ever happening again.
The educational based Holocaust memorial centre that I have visited twice is called Bet Shalom. I found the trip very interesting and informative. I left with a greater understanding of the Holocaust and how it affected people. At the centre I looked round a museum. One memorable item was a book with six million dots in it representing everybody who died. It was remarkable how large the book was, this helps us to understand how many six million actually is because, it is hard to imagine how many six million really is. The museum was full of useful information and it was interesting. I had a look around the memorial garden. The gardens were kept really well. There was a pile of stones that represented the 1,500,000 children killed. Visitors are urged to add a stone to the pile as a way of showing personal sympathy to the events of the holocaust. There was a section in the garden where people could put a plaque and a rose, this is another good way of showing personal remembrance. In the garden are several sculptures by Elsa Pollak. The most memorable and remarkable experience of the visit was when a survivor called ‘Freddie’ told me about his story. Parts of it were amusing the way he told it but it was really weird talking to someone who had survived such a horrific ordeal.
Two of the movies that have been made about the Holocaust are Schindler’s List and Anne Frank’s diary. Schindler’s list is about a man called Oscar Schindler who outwitted the Nazi’s to save the Jews from being forced into gas chambers, ghettos and concentration camps. Oscar was a Catholic German industrialist who made bullets for the Nazi’s. He used Jews as cheap labour, until he started to see the horrors they were being submitted to. He then decides that he wants to try and save the Jews. He did this by employing Jews as it kept them out of the concentration camps. To stop the Nazis from being able to buy the bullets he bought his own produce. So Oscar was considered a hero in the eyes of the Jews that he had saved. The movie was made in black and white to make the movie seem more realistic and throughout it displayed examples of how the Jews were killed, they showed Jews with their numbers tattooed on their arms.
I feel that a great effort has been made to remember the Holocaust. However the people that were subjected to the Holocaust were mentally and physically scared. Some of them were separated from their families or even watched their family members being shot. Their number was tattooed on their arm so this is a permanent reminder of their ordeal. Personally I feel it is impossible to sufficiently honour those who died. Although I feel that a great effort has been achieved. If I had to try and think of ideas of how to commemorate it then I wouldn’t know where to start. I respect those who have made a special effort to remember. I think that the main purpose of remembrance of this is so that it doesn’t happen again. So it is important for generations to learn about it. So it will always be remembered.
