Yad Vashem: World Holocaust Center, Jerusalem archive now available online

[Eva Libre]

 

 

 

"And to them will I give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name (a "yad vashem")... that shall not be cut off."

 

(Isaiah, chapter 56, verse 5)

 

As the Jewish people’s living memorial to the Holocaust, Yad Vashem safeguards the memory of the past and imparts its meaning for future generations. Established in 1953, as the world center for documentation, research, education and commemoration of the Holocaust, Yad Vashem is today a dynamic and vital place of intergenerational and international encounter.

For over half a century, Yad Vashem has been committed to four pillars of remembrance:

 

 

• Commemoration
• Documentation
• Research
• Education

 

 

  

 

 

The Holocaust

 

“And so, within seven months, I lost my father, my brother, and my mother. I am the only one who survived. This is what the Germans did to us, and these are things that should never be forgotten. On the other hand, we had our revenge: the survivors were able to raise magnificent families – among them myself. This is the revenge and the consolation.”

 

Zvi Kopolovich

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Visiting the archive now online

 

http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/about/index.asp

 

 Yad Vashem Photo Archive

 Collection: 138327 Items

 

[Irit Hakim-Keller]

Dearest Eva,

Thank you so much for posting this.

The Holocaust is still an open wound in the Jewish people's heart. Even of those whose family was not there.

It is very painful to realize that in our days there are people all over the world who are not only ignore the horrible case but also DENY it .

There are some places where the Holocaust is out of education-program in schools, claiming the subject hurts other's feeling. I cannot understand this way of thinking....

Not only Jews were murdered there, just they were most doubly.

The world should has a lesson out of this tragedy. By ignoring and denying - no lesson would be taken. If no lesson will be taken - there is a possibility that it will be repeated some day , somewhere, in the future.

[Eva Libre]

Dear Irit and all others,

 

not only a wound in the hearts of Jewish people, no, even I, a German, I am suffering and my heart will bleed until I die.

I am from Berlin and was suffering from post-war consequences. Childhood trauma. The images are burned into my brain.

 

The human race is famous for its rapid forgetting, repression and denial !!!

 

[Irit Hakim-Keller]

Yes, I do know that, Eva. 

I have met some German people who who told me about the pain in there hurts. I can understand and am emphatic to your pain.

You are right, it is not only so-call "our" wound.

Thank you...you've touched my heart deeply. I admit I am in tears now.

Much love to you

Irit 

[David Gould]

 

The world is so keen on the idea of moving on or finding closure; but there are some events that are so massive and completely beyond all comprehension that these terms must never apply. I have just visited this wonderful archive to see the images of the liberation of the camps, to see the piles of the dead who local residents were made to file past to view and see just what their masters had been doing...then they were forced to burry the dead.

Some historic events leave scars on the whole of humankind

scars that will never heal

tears that should never have been needed.

but lest we ever forget the word compassion

lest we ever forget we are all of the human family

archives like this will remind us

and we can never deny these images

the many millions of individual tragedies

each sad in of themselves.

We share these crimes as part of the human family

or the fact that they were carried out

by people just like us.

We will remember

and light the lamp.