A sobering experience, as it always is

Day three brought a chance to understand more deeply the rationale for the founding of Israel. We headed to Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust Memorial and Museum. It was a profoundly powerful experience.

The museum itself is an imposing bare concrete structure. The audio guide contains interesting detail and stories that bring some of the different eras to life. Proceeding chronologically, the museum never rushes the storytelling. This resulted in me learning much more about the years in the late 30s in Europe than I had before.

One detail I had not heard much about before was the world's relative unwillingness to accept Jewish refugees needing political asylum. Indeed, the Evian Conference of the late 30s left nearly all the world powers, including the US, adopting stringent and quite selfish positions of stagnant quotas when Jews needed to flee Germany and other countries under Hitler's grasp. I would hope we are all collectively a bit wiser about the need for asylum in similar situations today.

The power in the experience came both from the detail in the stories and in the extent of suffering. Small specifics, like a anti-Semitic board game that children used to play, brought home the gestalt of the time. The procession of exhibits, including the build up to the war, the war, the ghetto-ization of Jews, and the mass murder of Jews and others, left a cumulative effect on me.

There was one uplifting part, near the end of the museum, where non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jewish lives are called out and honored by name. Famous names such as Oskar Schindler and Raoul Wallenberg share space with ordinary citizens who sheltered Jewish families at dear risk to their well-being. A powerful reminder that we are all humans.