The Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem is a place that was on our itinerary that was highlighted in my mind. We have been to holocaust museums and seen memorials to holocaust victims but this was like nothing you could ever imagine. Movie director Steven Speilberg was mostly responsible for this museum being built. The grounds outside the museum have benches and slate tables in many set aside quiet spots. All the trees were donated from different countries. Each tree is in remembrance of a non-Jew that harbored Jews during the war and gave thanks to their bravery for allowing Jews to hide in their homes or work places so they could survive.
There are no photographs allowed in the museum which is a shame but totally understandable. Our guide told us that the tour is at your own pace and some people he brings there take 20 minutes to tour (which is not really possible) and others take all day. Unfortunately for us, we were there on Friday, Shabbat. They close the museum at 2:00pm on Fridays and we got there just before noon. At best we would have 2 hours.
I'll try to explain what we saw. The first part of the museum is the Children's Museum. About 1.7 million children died during the Holocaust. When you walk to the entrance of the children's museum there are signs telling you that you will be walking on a totally flat surface and no stairs involves. They tell you this because when you walk in you are in TOTAL darkness. There is a voiceover telling you that their are handrails to the sides and to walk either right of left because the museum is round in shape. Well, easier said than done. I grabbed Charles' arm because the walk of faith that you won't trip or fall became really scary until you could hear the names. Over their sound system they continuously annouce all the names of the children that died. They say it in 3 different languages and it takes something like 3 months for the same name to be repeated. It is slow and very respectfully announced. As you walk the ceiling has white lights like stars and as each child name and age is announced, pictures pop up all over the domed area and down the sides of children. All ages, tiny infants to 18 year olds, black and white photographs of beautiful innocent children. Walking through this museum with my own children, made this beautiful memorial even more emotional. How could anyone do this to children? The anger and disgust that builds within you after you walk out...the emotional hurt that you feel while you are in there. If a family was in a camp and their children did not survive, I do not know how they managed to live on themselves. One family from California must have been a large reason that the children's museum exists because there is a wall on the left as you exit that has a tribute to the child they lost. It was beautifully done but so hard to imagine losing your child to such horrific means.
The main museum was next. You can't take anything at all into the museum, no purses, backpacks...nothing, especially cameras. I was carrying my backpack and had to surrender it while we toured. The museum is like looking at a giant Toberlone candy bar. Triangular in shape and extremely long. When you walk in there on the end wall is a film playing of Nazi Germany back in the early 30's and I am sure that it goes forward all the way through the war but we had a limited amount of time and only watched this movie for about 6 or 7 minutes. When you turn around it is like the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark when the old guy has the Ark of the Covenant and is rolling it into what seems an endless warehouse of boxes. This museum was long and the way to tour it was in a zig zag tour. You cannot walk up the middle of the triangle. You zig and zag through all types of Holocaust history. Everything from postcards, handbags, striped camp uniforms, shirts with the Star of David on them, pictures, films, guns, knives, a table about 5 feet long and about 2 and a half feel deep. The table top opened and a man lived in there for four year. He would get in it anytime anyone came to the house he was hiding, measuring devices that Nazi's used to determine if someone was Jewish or not. Something to test their eye color, their hair color, the size of their head, the size of their noses...all humiliating for them. Actual movies being played of all the different types of ways they murdered the Jews and this was real footage that the Nazi's must have filmed because they were proud...it was disgusting. Shooting Jews lined up by a giant hole that would be a multiple grave for those standing there that got shot in the back and fell in. Bulldozers pushing bodies over a hill into a hole not a few bodies, thousands of bodies, the gas chambers and walk of death. All just so horrible that no person could walk through this museum and not have been affected by what they saw. At the very end of the museum there is a room on the right. If you ever go here, do not miss this room. It is about 30 feet high above your head and about 15 feet below where you stand. It is a round library of sorts that has book sheleves top to bottom. On the shelves are binders about 3 or 4 inches thick. They are alphabetical. They hold every name of every person that died. About 6.6 million Jews. They go all around the room and underneath you. Black binders full of names never t be forgotten.
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