Yad Vashem

Today our IBEX group went into Jerusalem and visited Yad Vahsem, which is the memorial museum for the Holocaust here in Israel. I have been to several other Holocaust museums and memorials, but this was the most powerful. I was struck again by the unbelievable human cruelty and depravity that was displayed so evidently by the Holocaust. It also caused me to think if I would have done anything about the slaughter of the Jews if I had lived in that time. Up until now I had not thought about it very seriously, but rather had assumed that I would resist the Nazis and help the Jews, after all I am a good person right? However, now I realize even more the motivations and hesitancies of the common people and why they did nothing. They were comfortable with their posessions and were scared of what would happen to them. Some people even outright hated the Jews. If I were not a Christian I can honestly say that I might not have done anything because I to would be too scared as to what would happen to me. This scared me and caused me to realize just how selfish and depraved that I am. I also believe that what one of our professors, Bill, said was true and really hit a chord with me. He said that God is not to blame for what happened because God is good at all times. Then why did this happen? His explanation is that God removed His hand of restraint for that time so that we would be able to see what happens when mankind rejects God. I can only praise God that He has not completely abandoned us and left us to our own ways. I don’t believe that mankind would ever have made it as far as we have today without God protecting us and showing grace every second of every day to us. Another powerful symbol was the Children’s memorial. To think that 1.5 million children were murdered simply because of their race is mind boggling. I don’t understand how people could do such a thing to innocent children. What kind of hatred and coldness would drive a person to do such a thing? All I could think of was my little sister Rachel being one of those children and what that would feel like to know that she was murdered cruelly. Then I realized that each of those children had people just like me who loved each child and mourned for their death. That was incredibly difficult and painful to grasp. All in all the trip to Yad Vashem today helped me to grasp better the pain and the suffering that the Jewish people went through in the Holocaust and still are dealing with today. It also helped me to see even better why the state of Israel is absolutely essential for the Jewish people. They have no where else to go. The people of Europe murdered their families and everywhere else they are persecuted and face anti-Semitism of all sorts. How are they to trust these people again? I always knew that you had understand the Holocaust in order to understand the Jewish way of thinking today, but now I feel as though I am able to see the world a little bit better through their eyes.