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Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial
Nested into a hillside overlooking Jerusalem's Ein Kerem Valley stands Yad Vashem - the historic museum commemorating the events of the Holocaust and devoted to the 6 million Jews who perished in these events. Over ten years of planning and reconstruction work have gone into creating this architectural feat, consisting of over twelve diverse spaces each dedicated to a different aspect of the Holocaust and designed to express this aspect specifically. Together the assorted spaces create a historical narrative of the Holocaust.
Setting aside the 1.5 million younger victims of the Holocaust, no Jewish heritage tour to Israel will be complete without a visit to Yad Vashem and its Children's Holocaust Memorial. The Children's Museum is located outside the main museum, reenacts an ambiance of fear and somberness making it easy accessible to the minds and hearts of adults and children alike. When on a tour to Israel, visiting the Children's Holocaust Memorial is the perfect opportunity to teach your children about the Holocaust, their heritage and roots, and to explain to them the importance of the state of Israel for the Jewish people.
Yad Vashem Children's Holocaust Memorial
Designed by acclaimed architect Moshe Safdie, the Children's Holocaust Memorial is reached through an arched pathway and is set underground. Walking past the arched entrance, the experience begins as recorded voices are heard through concealed speakers calling out the names of the children who perished in the Holocaust.
Once inside, visitors are welcomed into an octagonal shaped room dimly lit by a single candle. The mirrored walls multiply this single candle into an infinite number of flames—one of the many symbolic features intended to give visitors a visual idea of the multitudes that lost their lives.
Leaving the underground hall, visitors are once again met with the forested hills of Jerusalem. Directly above the underground memorial, visitors will find an upper level monument which is an identical octagonal shaped structure echoing the underground one. However, instead of reflective mirrors multiplying the single burning flame, here a series of pillars symbolizes the deceased. The massive stone pillars which make up the ground level monument do not all stand erect; some of the pillars are broken while others are fallen to the ground symbolizing the abrupt ending of these young lives. Together the amalgam of differently sized pillars represents the varying ages and stages of maturity of the perished children.
Yad Vashem Children's Holocaust Museum
When on a Bar Mitzvah tour to Israel, a Bat Mitzvah tour to Israel or when traveling with teenagers, be sure to pay a visit to Yad Vashem's Learning Center and Visual Center. Looking a lot like a computer lab, the Learning Center allows visitors to see, hear and study the "major questions" which plague Holocaust survivors. Recordings by prominent philosophers, thinkers, authors and survivors help answer questions of "How?" and "Why?"
Like the Learning Center, the Visual Center offers documentary films about the Holocaust as well as providing earphones with taped testimonials by survivors. Visitors are welcome to look through the vast archive of films and footage of and about the Holocaust. Those fond of films and familiar with famous directors will be thrilled to find a special video by Steven Spielberg, inaugurating the Visual Center's film archive.
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