It’s taken me two weeks to compose my thoughts on this visit. I wept silently throughout the tour. By the end I could barely breathe and was grateful for outdoor exhibits, though listening to the names and ages of the children took me to a new kind of broken. The Jewish people do not call this terrible event, when 6 million Jews were murdered, “holocaust.” After understanding its meaning, I agree we have incorrectly labeled this unbelievably horrific event.

Historically, holocaust was “a Jewish sacrificial offering that was burned completely on an altar” (Oxford Languages). Their lives were not a sacrifice to God. They were a massacre in the name of power. The Jewish people use the term, “Yad Vashem,” translated literally as “a memorial and a name” to describe this museum. It is a history museum but also a remembrance to the name of every person whose name they can find who died and to those precious few who survived, as well as honor to those who helped to save survivors.

After walking through the very difficult story of the holocaust, seeing actual rail cars, actual shoes, actual jewels, actual fabric stars that had been sewed to clothing, feeling all the happiness drained from the air, we stepped outside to a stunning view of modern Jerusalem, up from the ashes…

This is by no standard a complete review, picture library or description, because I find that I have no words, just tears, admiration of the Jewish people, and determination that we will be counted among the righteous who do what they can, where they are, to help our Jewish brothers and sisters, starting with teaching my own children how to love their neighbors above self.

For more information and better pictures than I could ever take, https://www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/about.html