Yad Vashem
The grey walls caving in and carpet beneath my toes. The rolling montage and eery music soranades their daily life.the women fidget from side to side, a visceral reaction at a time once passed.
Zigged zag through the museum as we witnessed how the Nazis deposed the bodies creating a new world. The strong propaganda the crimson red, still stings of dehumanization. My gut wrenches with fear, sorrow and pain. The hollow feeling sucks you into an abyss and the loudness of conversation fills ones head. How could this have happen, please Hashem never again.
I ask myself how does today's world mirror a holocaust, not a physical cleansing but a verbal one. How do we assign labels, segregate those who don't look like us.
How... can I not make a Holocaust? Not place an armband on another?
As we zig zagged, eye contact between the women was either non existent or quick. Perhaps the gravity of understanding what rests on our shoulders as the generation to bridge the survivors and the future understanding comes to the surface. We bear not only our own emotions but also their memories. These are real stories. Shall we not only never forget, we should make sure that the stories never become classified as "fake."
Perhaps the single best way to put that thought into action is to be taken to an Israel Fair and learn how to advocate for the modern state of Israel. The history, the realities (vs the myths) and the truth we are responsible to communicate. We learned today that a Bat Mitzvah is all about embracing responsibility (and that is what we celebrate). The Yad Vashem visit is perhaps the single biggest responsibility embrace we have. We should mourn and then celebrate this responsibility.
" shall give them in My house and within My. Walls a memorial and a name- Isaiah 56:5
May We Always Remember,
Nicole Wiesen, JWCAtlanta 2017