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| Yad Vashem Home ► | Inauguration of the new Museum at Yad Vashem |
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| Yad Vashem Home ► | Inauguration of the new Museum at Yad Vashem |
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Contents
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The Anguish of Liberation and the Return
to Life:
The Central Theme for Holocaust Remembrance Day 2005
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About the Magazine
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by Leah Goldstein
“The new Museum at Yad Vashem describes the story of those who were
killed, the story of the fate of the Jewish people… It is a vital signpost
for all of humanity. A signpost that warns how small is the distance
between hatred and murder, between racism and genocide. How a so-called
“enlightened” and advanced society could become primitive, and turn into a
cruel machine, and how short is the way from the burning of synagogues and
Jewish homes to the destruction of democracy.”
“The number of Holocaust survivors who are still with us is dwindling
fast. Our children are growing up just as rapidly, They are beginning to
ask their first questions about injustice. What will we tell them? Will we
say, ‘That’s just the way the world is’? Or will we say instead, ‘We are
striving to change things – to find a better way’? Let this museum stand
as testimony that we are striving for a better way. Let Yad Vashem inspire
us to keep striving, as long as the darkest dark stalks the face of the
earth.”
“The new Holocaust History Museum which we are inaugurating today comes to
promise that neither land, time nor forgetfulness will cover the blood of
the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust... In the heart of every
person are different chambers. In the national Jewish heart is the chamber
of remembrance, and it is found here, at Yad Vashem… Today there must go
out from here, from Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, the words of humanity: a
worldwide vow to preserve the honor of man, his image, his freedom and his
basic rights, a universal vow to fight all forms of racism and
xenophobia.”
“The new Museum will be a monument, name and mouth for six million
victims; the little children, the helpless elderly, the women and men
whose only ‘sin’ was to be Jewish. It will teach the horror of the
Holocaust to the younger generations, so that the cries of those murdered
will be remembered, and their meaning understood…and in another 20 or 50
years, when the survivors are no longer with us, their stories will
continue to be told.”
“And so we go through the new museum. What shall we do – cry? No. We don’t
try to tell the tale to make people weep… If we decided to tell the tale,
it is because we wanted the world to be a better world… There is something
more frightening [than a messenger who cannot deliver his message] – when
the messenger has delivered the message and nothing has changed. The
messenger has delivered the message. And what is our role? We must be the
messengers’ messengers.”
“From here, from this Museum, from Yad Vashem, carved in the hills of
Jerusalem our capital city, we gaze yearningly towards our grandmothers
and grandfathers, our mothers and fathers, our sisters and brothers, our
daughters and our sons. At this historic gathering, as in all
commemorations, we cry to you and we do not forget.”
The Museum we are dedicating today is a monument to those who were
murdered attempting to preserve their names, faces and identities for
future generations… The wings of the Museum building that open to the
Jerusalem scenery like hands reaching out in prayer symbolize our
commitment to a future of life and hope, and of preserving the human
spirit. This commitment needs to be shared by all of us, especially you,
leaders of the world. Your presence here strengthens that commitment.” |
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Copyright © 2005 Yad Vashem The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority |
