Yad Vashem Receives Top Ranking from TripAdvisor

Yad Vashem has recently been the recipient of TripAdvisor's 2013 Excellence Award. TripAdvisor, which is the foremost travel website driven by reviews and comments of tourists and travelers, gives the award to the top-performing 10% of all businesses worldwide on TripAdvisor. It is given to businesses that consistently earn high ratings from TripAdvisor travelers.

Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial

Here are some of the things our visitors are saying about us:

“Speaks for itself"

Reviewed 26 February 2013

If you have not been there in the past few years, since they re-did it, it is a MUST. The new design is much more interesting and evocative than the old one.

“A place not to be missed”

Reviewed 24 August 2012

Knowing history (OK, I am a bit of history freak) and having visited actual places of former concentration camps (quite a few) I still wouldn't miss it - very well designed, very touching, very accurate. You should take audio-guide and allow time to really let it sink into you.

“moving.... makes u wonder what a man can do......”

Reviewed 20 May 2013

Situated on Mt Herzl in the new Jerusalem, is this museum, which is unlike any regular collection of items but a collection of feelings and emotions. Please take a minimum of 3 hrs for this magnificent piece of haunting history.

“Powerful and moving”

Reviewed 20 May 2013

The audio and visual displays are powerful, moving and very well done. The architects did an excellent job with the gardens and buildings to build a spiritual space. It is a must see for all adults. Allow enough time. There is much to see and hear.

“Impressive and never forgetting”

Reviewed 12 May 2013

I think the title of this review says everything that this museum needs. It made a big impression on me. I will never forget, but that is what this museum also wants to say: to give a name to all the Jewish victims of WWII, that we will never forget.

Celebrating the End of World War II

World War II veterans take their seats at the Memorial to the Jewish
Soldiers and Partisans at Yad Vashem

On Thursday, May 9, 2013 a ceremony marking the 68^th anniversary of the Allied victory over Nazi Germany in World War II (VE Day) took place at the Memorial to the Jewish Soldiers and Partisans at Yad Vashem in the presence of Jewish World War II veterans and ex-servicemen, their families, Israeli government officials and foreign diplomatic representatives of the Allied countries. The event was organized with the participation of the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption and a number of partisan and veteran groups with speakers including the Minister of Immigrant Absorption Sofa Landver, Dr. Bella Gutterman the Director of the International Institute for Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem and Avraham Greenzeid, Chairman of the Veterans Union of World War II Fighters Against Nazism. Unlike the understandable solemn nature of virtually all of the other ceremonies and events which are hosted by Yad Vashem throughout the year (with the exception of those honoring the Righteous Among the Nations), this was mostly a joyous and celebratory occasion with commemorative speeches and upbeat musical performances. 

Veterans from the Former Soviet Union speak before the ceremony

The Israeli Police Orchestra plays a number of patriotic songs from the
Allies during World War II

Conducted by Inspector Eitan Sobol, the Israeli Police Orchestra played many of the well-known patriotic songs from that era including several from the Soviet Union, Great Britain, the United States as well as a few sung by Jewish fighters from the Yishuv and Jewish partisans in Europe. Many of those in attendance, especially the veterans and those who lived through that difficult period, joined their voices in a nostalgic melody, singing a familiar song or two that still seemed to reflect the light of hope and unyielding desire to better the world by those who had the courage to raise their arms in defiance amidst a powerful and growing darkness. Many of these same veterans, especially those from the Former Soviet Union, proudly donned old uniforms, medals or berets serving as a visual reminder of the sacrifice by over 1.5 million Jews who left their families to serve and fight in the Allied forces during World War II and who bravely resisted and defeated the injustice and tyranny which Nazi Germany brought to the world during one of the most evil episodes in human history.  

The evening concludes with a wreath-laying ceremony honoring the
Jewish fighters who fell in battle during World War II

All photos courtesy of Hannah Kaye.

              -Richard Mann           

Preserving the memory of the 6 million victims, a name at a time

Aron Heller's article in the Washington Post brings the spotlight on Yad Vashem's Shoah Victims' Names Recovery Project


REHOVOT, Israel — With a hand on her chest, 82-year-old Rivka Fringeru battled back tears as she reeled off a list of names she has rarely voiced in the past 70 years: her father, Moshe, then her mother, Hava, and finally her two older brothers, Michael and Yisrael.


All perished in the Holocaust after the Harabju family from Dorohoi, Romania, was rounded up in 1944 and sent to ghettos and camps. Only Rivka and her brother Marco survived, and like many others, they spent the rest of their lives trying to move on and forget.

Now, Yad Vashem, Israel’s national Holocaust memorial and museum, is asking them to remember

Read the rest here.

Theater in Holland: A Cultural Refuge During the Holocaust - Part 1

A play at the Hollandsche Schouwburg - A "Jewish Only"
theater in Amsterdam

On Monday, May 6, 2013 the International Institute for Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem along with the International Institute for Jewish and Israeli Culture held a day-long symposium discussing performing arts in Holland during the Holocaust. The informative lectures and panels focused primarily on the many leading Jewish directors, actors, singers, composers, dancers and musicians who played such a prominent role in Dutch theater and the performing arts before and even during the period of the Holocaust. With most of Dutch Jewry by that time well integrated in the cultural society of the Netherlands, the theater was an artistic medium in which many Jews came to participate, excel and build their careers. Leading performing artists at the time, such as Henriette and Louis Davids, Sylvain Poons, Jetty Cantor, the singing duo Johnny & Jones and many other prominent Dutch Jews starred center stage in Amsterdam in a wide assortment of productions in theater, symphony and cabaret.

In addition to the large amount of local talent, Amsterdam also became a temporary safe place of refuge for many well-known German-Jewish artists in the 1930s who wished only to continue their artistic profession after having been forbidden in doing so by discriminatory, antisemitic policies enforced by the Germans following the rise of the Nazis in 1933. Scores of Jewish performers living in Germany and Austria at the time began to look elsewhere to continue their artistic profession with many eventually arriving at the already bright cultural scene in Holland. This included many renowned Jewish performing artists such as Max Ehrlich, Willy Rosen and Franz Engel who all made their way to Amsterdam after having their professions and livelihoods stripped from them by the Nazi regime. However, this temporary asylum was short lived as the German occupation of the Netherlands in May 1940 brought with it similar antisemitic laws which also came to affect and oppress the Jews living there.

Outside the Hollandsche Schouwburg (Dutch Theater) later
renamed the Joodsche Schouwburg (Jewish Theater)

Amsterdam as a cultural refuge for Jewish artists abruptly came to an end in 1941 as the Nazis issued a decree that forbade Jews from attending public gatherings and establishments used for public recreation, relaxation and education. The Nazis permitted one theater to remain open, the Hollandsche Schouwburg (Dutch Theater) later renamed the Joodsche Schouwburg (Jewish Theater), allowing Jewish artists in Amsterdam to perform there, but only as long as it was solely in front of all-Jewish audiences. One of the visiting guest lecturers at the symposium, Esther Göbel of the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam, noted that the talent on stage during these performances was so great, as a result of the concentration of so many renowned Jewish-European performers in one single artistic venue, that there were a few reported cases in which non-Jews would temporarily put on a yellow Star of David, just in order to be able to attend a show of such collective theatrical genius. While the theater provided a cultural outlet for Amsterdam’s Jews to escape a progressively more frightening reality and preserve a small sense of normalcy during an increasingly troubling time, the Nazis and their collaborators would also eventually suppress this small channel of artistic expression as they began (and eventually succeeded) to imprison and later exterminate the overwhelming majority of the Jews living in the Netherlands.   

Defiance in the Ghetto

The packed auditorium at Yad Vashem during the Research Institute's
seminar commemorating 70 years since the Warsaw Ghetto uprising 

This past Friday, April 19th marked the 70^th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, the largest act of Jewish armed resistance during the Holocaust. This heroic act of defiance against the Nazis and their collaborators began as the complete liquidation of the ghetto was initiated on Passover eve in 1943. This year, to commemorate 70 years since the Warsaw Ghetto uprising began, Yad Vashem’s International Institute for Holocaust Research held a seminar with leading researchers and guest lecturers discussing various topics ranging from the hardships of life in the ghetto to the rise of Jewish resistance against deportation and almost certain death.

For nearly a month, many Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto fought the Germans and their collaborators despite the odds heavily stacked against them. The Jewish fighters in the ghetto faced a strong enemy and were forced to fight in atrocious conditions with a serious lack of arms and ammunition. However, what stood out most for me during the seminar was not just the establishment and armed opposition of the two central resistance groups in the Warsaw Ghetto: the Jewish Combat Organization and the Jewish Military Union, but the massive scale of spontaneous resistance by Jews, unaffiliated with either of those two groups, who heroically fought from the many bunkers they had prepared.

As Hersh Wasser recalled and better summarized in his book, Melech Nischt: the Destruction and Rebellion of the Jews of Warsaw, 

“The will to resist has been sparked among thousands of men and women, elderly people and    children,    a will which conquers the natural anxiety and the fear of death and hardship. The masses have understood that by resisting surrender they are fighting the enemy in a unique way, hindering his deeds of destruction...”

The Research Institute’s seminar at Yad Vashem commemorating the 70^th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising of 1943 offered those in attendance a glimpse into the level of sacrifice by those many Jews who actively took up arms against an incredibly powerful, well-equipped army despite the impossibility of success. Even though the uprising was cruelly suppressed, in no way is the meaning behind the struggle of the many fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto diminished, as their heroism and the justness of their cause is still remembered and honored 70 years after the brutal silencing of their will.

            -Richard Mann 

Video from Yad Vashem's 'Voices from the Inferno'

http://yadvashem.org.il/yv/en/exhibitions/warsaw_ghetto_testimonies/fighters.asp

                                            

My First Holocaust Remembrance Day at Yad Vashem - Part 2

Standing in silence during the siren at the start of the wreath-laying
ceremony on Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day

Just as the evening ceremony at Yad Vashem commemorating Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day (Yom Hazikaron Lashoah Ve'lagvurah in Hebrew) was done in an incredibly emotional and meaningful manner, the following day continued in this trend yet in a drastically different way in which I had expected following the moving experience the previous night. The events throughout the day provided a more intimate setting, allowing greater room for personal reflection as visitors and guests (including many survivors themselves) came to remember and memorialize both the individual lives of loved ones and the immense collective loss of entire communities whose absence is still heavily felt, honored and mourned until this day.

The day started with a wreath-laying ceremony, attended by survivors and their families as well as President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and visiting American Secretary of State John Kerry, that began following the sounding of a two-minute siren at 10:00. The siren serves as a reminder regarding the gravity of the day as we gathered together to remember the victims who suffered such extreme cruelty and memorialize the spirit of those who resisted. Despite the large number of people in attendance, for me personally there is nothing like the siren which has such a profound effect in creating a sense of complete aloneness, leaving oneself emotionally isolated and detached from others and thus allowing the most intimate reflection on such internal and sensitive thoughts concerning one of the darkest periods of human history.

Visitors to Yad Vashem place a flower in the Hall of Remembrance
after reciting the names of loved ones 

Following the wreath-laying ceremony, members of the public were invited to recite the names of Holocaust victims in the Hall of Remembrance. This was an exceptionally moving scene as survivors and their descendants recited the names of their loved ones who were taken from them by such unwavering hate, standing firm as witnesses against the crimes which claimed so many victims whose names once recited instantly seemed to be made eternal. In addition to reading the names, many people included their own unique way of coping with such personal tragedy either by reciting kaddish (the Jewish prayer for the dead), telling a special story of the victim or community or even sharing the words from a poem or letter. Almost seven decades later, the pain and sense of loss is still so clearly visible, fresh and unrefined that it gives perspective to the magnitude of devastation during the Holocaust. As I began to internalize that each name being recited was an individual, directly connected to others who constitute our world, it became clear just how much our past, present and future are forever impacted by the lives lived and the terrible way in which they were lost.

            -Richard Mann

My First Holocaust Remembrance Day at Yad Vashem - Part 1

Holocaust survivor Dina Ostrover lighting a Memorial Torch at the Official 
Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day

Having just started working at Yad Vashem last week, I waited eagerly to learn and experience up close for the first time just how exactly Yad Vashem commemorates Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day (Yom Hazikaron Lashoah Ve'lagvurah in Hebrew), a national day of remembrance in Israel on which the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust are memorialized. Each year on this day, which so profoundly honors the many victims, heroes, and survivors that experienced first hand this horrifying period of blatant inhumanity, I’m reminded of the importance and continual impact the Holocaust has had in shaping who I am but more importantly the significance it has had on the Jewish people’s collective identity and memory. As the evening’s ceremony got underway I had no idea what a whirlwind of emotion awaited me, as seated with all of the other 2,000 attendees around me, instantaneously I felt a mutual understanding of responsibility, that through determination, education and action we must never allow such devastation to happen again.

The flag being lowered at half-mast reflected the scale of national tragedy that befell the Jewish people, setting a solemn mood to the ceremony that, although I didn’t know it at the time, would also fluctuate between various other emotions as the evening progressed. Having President Peres and Prime Minister Netanyahu deliver their remarks summed up for me just how far the Jewish people have come in such a relatively short amount of time, how we are now in a position to fully internalize the events from the past and have the means in order to prevent such atrocity from repeating itself. Next, the actor Ishai Golan offered a powerful reading of defiance written by one of the fighters in the Warsaw ghetto uprising 70 years ago, capturing the bravery and heroism of those who resisted the Nazis until their final breath. His dramatic reading resonated on an even more profound level, considering he plays the captured Israeli soldier Uri Zach on one of my favorite TV shows, Hatufim (the original Israeli Homeland).

Youth Movements Choir singing the Partisans' Anthem
at the Opening Ceremony

Throughout the ceremony, the Youth Movement Choir sang a variety of songs including the Jewish Partisans’ song (perfectly fitting with this year’s theme), which was sung so flawlessly and with such young and determined heartfelt passion it unequivocally became my favorite of the evening. However, nothing evoked a more diverse range of emotion than the personal stories told by six survivors, each chosen to light a torch in memory of the 6 million Jewish victims who were so horrifically murdered. While each of the torchlighters personally displayed extraordinary defiance and rebellion, whether by jumping off a fast moving train headed for an extermination camp or joining the partisans and fighting the Nazis and their supporters in the forests, every one of the six survivors exemplified more than just this year’s theme for Holocaust Remembrance Day. Following the terrible tragedy of the Holocaust, these survivors’ incredible will to not only stay alive amidst such unfathomable destruction but to continue to create, develop and build their lives in Israel, defined for me the true meaning of inspiration and provided a glimpse into their long fulfilled lives surrounded by family and loved ones. I felt overcome with sheer joy as all of us present were able to share in their story of defiance, survival and triumph. The passing away of Peretz Hochman z”l one of the torchlighters just a few days before the ceremony (his widow lit the torch on his behalf), reemphasized in my eyes the responsibility we have in this generation, having been fortunate to hear first-hand from the survivors themselves, to memorialize the events and personal stories for the generations to come who will soon not have the opportunity to hear directly from survivors.  So while not expecting to feel anything but sorrow on Yom Hashoah, I did feel a strange mix of emotions: anger and joy, despair and hope, but namely pride for now being part of an organization that is so completely devoted to the exceptionally noble undertaking of Holocaust commemoration, documentation, research and education for this generation and those to come.

-Richard Mann