Yad V’Shem is designed to make you struggle. For example, at the beginning of the museum you see a happy, smiling family depicted on the wall. As you move deeper in to the museum you can still see the image, but it gets harder and harder to make out. Ultimately, as you reach the end of the museum you can still see the wall, but it is extremely difficult, even impossible, to see the image. Happiness has given way to struggl as one might expect with an event as horrific as the Holocaust.
The grounds surrounding the museum are filled with memorials. The first
building constructed at Yad V’Shem was not a memorial for a person, group or event. It is a simple room with a single memorial grave. On the floor are names of places that were affected ( and often decimated) by the Holocaust. These were
places most talked about by
survivors. The memorial represents a spiritual struggle rather than a
physical struggle. After World War Two ended, survivors did not have an
outlet to tell what happened to them. They were only able to talk about their experiences when Nazi trials began at Nuremberg in 1948 and after.
Perhaps the two most distinctive memorials at Yad V’Shem are the cattle car and the children’s memorial. The
cattle car represents extreme physical struggle. On the wall of the
memorial site is a quote from a survivor’s testimony. It is
presented in such a way that the visitor must shift back and forth in order to read it in its entirety. The testimony portrays the Jews in the cattle car fighting
over water and air space, in order to survive.
The designer who created the cattle car memorial also designed the
children’s memorial. The latter is divided into two parts. The exterior has stone pillars of different heights. These symbolize the children who were not able to grow into adults because of the Holocaust. This is
immediately juxtaposed with the trees nearby which were planted as
seedlings and allowed to grow to their maximum height.
Entering the cave-like second section of the memorial, there is a room
with pictures of some of the children represented in the memorial. The
second chamber contains candles and mirrors. These represent the one and a half million children who died in the Holocaust. You cannot tell which are real candles and
which are reflections. Perhaps this reflects our inability to clearly see the children who died in the Holocaust as in a hall of mirrors
always distorting our perception.