Israel and the Holocaust

First off, Sorry it is so long. I really should have written this before because I don’t have the same feelings that I did have before about the Holocaust and the Jews but I still remember the waking up and having terrible dreams about the holocaust and just feeling so bad for the Jews. My feelings were very blue. We have been studying the history of the Jews in the Old Testament, a Jewish class, and learning about them in the modern times, and the Palestine/Israeli conflict. They have had a very hard hard history that has put them all through a lot of suffering. Going to the Holocaust museum, Yad Vashem, was a very moving experience. I have been to the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC but it felt different because I have learned about them in class more than I knew before and I am now living among them. I has given me a different perspective and I am glad that I have a little new found understanding for this region.

At Yad Vashem our tour guide was a very strong Jew from Ohio and New York that moved to Israel for Zionism. Where the Jews can gain back their identity, have a home, and create a Zion. They have been wandering in exile just as the scriptures prophesied. I know that this was all supposed to be this way but your heart still goes out to them. For what they have been through I feel as though they deserve to have a place where they can have peace and a home. In contrast, I don’t totally agree with what they are doing or are going about it in the right way. They have thrown thousands of Palestinians out of their homes, taken control of their lands, water, and a lot of their basic rights. Israel makes life for an Israeli so hard with all the checkpoints and security measures, which they say, help stop terrorism, but fact discourage Palestinians from going just about anywhere. All of our teachers have to have bassports, licenses, permits, and much more…about 5 different things to get them through security checkpoints to come teach us here at BYU JC. We have had forums where Palestinians come in a tell us their side of the story, which is very tragic, showing us that Israel and Palestine are not at “War” but Israel sure is making non-violent aggressive movements of settlements and such to expand their boundaries. It really is considered an act of war and they’re getting away with it. I am really not siding with either side but I have been more informed on what is going on presently and can see both sides of the story.

Enough about the Conflict for now, I wanted to share with you about the field trip that we had to Yad Vashem last Friday. Our guide as I said before is a Zionist and while we were taking our tour I asked her a question about living in Israel compared to America and what is so different? She said religiously or physically? I wanted to hear both so I had asked her both and she said that religiously, living here is so fulfilling. Living where the bible “torah” took place, where the temple was and is supposed to be built and a place designed to be their Zion is wonderful. I thought that was cool but what she said after that was pretty powerful to me. She said, physically it is a little scary 4 of my sons are in the military and one will soon be when he is old enough. I worry about them when they are away. Then later she said that her brother in law, who was engaged, and uncle were out in the market preparing for his wedding the next day when a bomb went off and killed them both. I was shocked because these things are real and happen to people that live here. It’s not on the news about a disturbed land far away, it’s here. It is very sad to hear about but I feel super safe being here in Jerusalem.

As we further went through the holocaust museum it was very sad to see how the Germans and others worked to annihilate the Jews: The Anti-Semitism, the ghettos, and death camps. We went into a room where the floor was just shoes, tons of shoes that were worn by the Jews before going into the Gas chambers. Our guide told us when she went to Auschwitz, the death camp in Germany, and saw a room filled with luggage, a room filled with shoes, and a room filled with human hair. She was disgusted and couldn’t look at it anymore. I thought about it and thought to myself, what if that happened to us, the Mormons? It would be devastating and very heart wrenching to see that happen to your people. The museum was a touching experience for me and my heart went out to the Jews. They had hard lives.
Later that night we watched Schindler’s List where he saved thousands of Jews lives but still didn’t feel like it was enough. It was a little redeeming to see good people resist the bad but the treatment of the Jews was terrible. It has made me think a lot about being human and treating others with kindness and respect no matter who they are. At the end of our tour our guide said that she saw two boys walk out of Yad Veshem and one say to the other, “I will never allow this to happen to my people again.” Then the other boy replied with, “I will never allow this to happen to any people again.”