Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, Jerusalem

Brief History

§  Established in 1953, Yad Vashem is a memorial dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust in Jerusalem, Israel. The memorial stands as a testimony to the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime led by dictator Adolf Hitler.  From 1941 to 1945, approximately six million Jews were systematically killed in the carnage.

§  The memorial houses several sites such as the children’s memorial and the Hall of Remembrance, and the museum of holocaust art that has a special collection of some 10,000 works on the genocide.

§  The Holocaust History Museum, a part of the memorial, contains original artefacts, survivor testimonies and personal possessions by many Jews who died in the catastrophe.

Interesting Facts

§  Designed by well-known architect Moshe Safdie, the Children’s Memorial was built to pay tribute to the approximately 1.5 million Jewish children who were slaughtered during the Holocaust. The memorial was made through the donation from Abe and Edita Speigel, whose son Uzeil was murdered in Auschwitz at the age of two and a half.

§  Another main highlight of the memorial is The Valley of Communities, which is a massive 2.5 acre monument dug out of natural bedrock. It was constructed in memory of several Jewish communities who lived across Europe until they were persecuted and murdered by the Nazi Germany. Over 5,000 names of some destroyed Jews communities are engraved on stone walls.

§  Many galleries at the memorial encompass Jew’s life before and after the Holocaust in Europe.

Unique Features

§  One of the galleries titled “The Awful Beginning” highlights the German invasion of Poland and discriminatory decrees by the Nazi Germany against Jews through pictures and text.

§  Several other exhibits, which include film, diaries and letters, among others throw a light on the trials and tribulations of the Jewish during the Nazi rule in Germany and its occupied areas.

§  The Hall of Names is the Jewish people’s memorial to each and every Jew who killed in the Holocaust. The main circular hall contains the extensive collection of ‘Pages of Testimony’ – short biographies of each victim of the catastrophe. The ceiling of the Hall is comprised of a 10-metre high cone highlighting 600 photographs of victims.