On a magnificent hill overlooking a valley to the West of Jerusalem is Yad Vashem - the Holocaust Memorial. It has bold and impressive architecture - a huge cement A-frame with skylight at the peak.
Inside, the museum is a path through dozens of exhibits which document the discrimination, suffering and atrocities against Jews in Europe especially during the 1930's and World War II. Through photos, text, video and artifacts the powerful exhibits show the conditions imposed in the Jewish ghettoes, the resistance, the violence, the horrors of the concentration camps.
Exhibits include discussion of repression against the Roma (gypsies) and homosexuals. Other exhibits document the historic links of the Jewish population with socialist and communist ideas and movements. Exhibits document the liberation of the concentration camps and defeat of Nazi Germany.
The final exhibit of the path through the museum documents the creation of Israel. I suppose the designers of the museum see this as the final chapter in victory over the holocaust and anti-semitic atrocities.
But is this correct? After five weeks in Israel and the Occupied Territories it strikes me as deeply ironic. Ghettoes, identity cards, economic repression, discrimination based on ethnicity, humiliation of one ethnic group, and state violence against civilians are happening barely ten miles from the museum. It is just that these things are happening behind a very tall wall.
It would be nice if one day the final exhibit of the memorial could pay tribute to those who continue the tradition of Jewish humanitarianism and resistance to oppression and racism - people like Barara Lubin, Sergio Yahni, Naomi Klein, Yuri Avnery, Dennis Bernstein, Jeff Halper, Noam Chomsky, Amira Hass, etc etc etc..
1 comment:
It is indeed ironic, that past injustices are repeated by the victims on yet another population. Perhaps, there should be be a Palestinian memorial right next door.
Your insights are right on target.
- PRH
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