Yad Vashem

We went to the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem on Monday. Emotionally it was a very tough experience. I cried multiple times which for me is highly unusual. The two things that wrenched me the most were the pictures of the kids and the displays of family photos that had been found among the belongings of the dead, often in their pockets. Seeing so much life and happiness in these photos was like seeing everything that they missed out on and ultimately lost forever. I think that they could make an entire museum with just those photos and it would be enough to capture the horror. There was one photograph in particular; of a wedding party taken several years before the war and the caption read, "Of the 56 people in this photograph, 48 were killed in the concentration camps."

I've always been interested in the role of joy during times of great pain and so it was the items that were related to joy, or some form of redemption that I copied to share below:

Before we went in to the museum, I took a walk through the Garden of the Righteous which is dedicated to Gentiles who rescued Jews. Each tree is named for an individual hero and walking under the shadow of these trees looking at the nameplates I felt as if I were in a hall of giants, and with this great cloud of witnesses to the goodness that can be found in the human heart sheltering me, I cried, hot tears running down my cheeks, and they were heavy and buoyant all at once.

The following is the suicide note of a young woman who took her life before the Nazi's could. The joy in it struck me because at this point she would have already experienced much pain and suffering in one of the ghettos that the Jews were forced into before they were shipped off to the concentration camps.

Beloved Stefanie, Forgive me, remember me with love. There was no choice. My life was beautiful to the end because of your love and the friendship of those who surrounded me in loving care... I hope to die at peace with the world and in the hope of grace and love. Be strong. Maybe someday justice and humanity will live anew. Signed, Anna Trauman

I went back there, in the shadow of the chimneys, in the breaks between the pain, there was something resembling happiness... For me, the happiness there will always be the most memorable experience, perhaps. - Imre Kertesz

To the One Who Restored My Belief in Humanity by Yehuda Baron

As we were leaving the museum and walking back towards the bus, one of the teenage girls starting doing ballet moves, pliés and leaps upon a curb of stone and it was just such a wonderful moment of beauty and a reminder that life marches on. That light shines in the darkness and that the darkness cannot overcome it.