Yad Vashem is a sacred place dedicated to the memory, resistance, and survival of Eastern European Jewry during World War II. When will there be a memorial to recognize the end of that persecution against the Jews instead of the latest iteration of it? We have been persecuted with different weapons throughout history. Whether by Zyklon B in a gas chamber or by suicide bomber on a public bus or by a terrorist sniper inside a tank in Gaza, the pain for each family member is immeasurable. What my 10 year old taught me through her visit to Yad Vashem is what we know but are afraid to say: Jews always have been the victims of anger and hate, targeted for our mere existence. Why isn’t there a museum to that pain and torture and death? She survived sirens and lived with fear and knew of funerals for soldiers and civilians. For this innocent and mature young girl, this is where her confusion was most acute. So what she is really saying was ‘Why is the challenge of that generation so much harder than the challenge of this generation?’ Other than the magnitude and scope of the Holocaust, I had little retort. 1945, while yesterday for some, is a long time ago to her and her peers. She did not grow up in the wake of the survivors’ generation, as I and most of this column’s readers did. My daughter looks for a dangling Hamsa and red-stringed bracelets. When I was 10, I scanned every old person’s forearm for tattooed blue numbers. They are in no way real-life, modern people in her neighborhood. Yet for this little girl, the Holocaust is as removed from her history as the Jewish expulsion from Spain in 1492. The scope of the atrocities and systemized killing of communities and Jewish families is beyond comprehension. The magnitude of the Holocaust is unparalleled. She summed up a reality that we all know but perhaps often are afraid to admit. I, on the other hand, felt like I had the wind sucked from my gut. She put her headphones back on her head and picked up with Taylor Swift. So what is different between Iran and Hamas and the Nazis? Don’t they all want to hurt Jews and Israel? The Holocaust was bad and sad, but so are all of these other things.” And dad, you are always talking on the phone about Iran not getting a bomb and I know it is because they could hurt Israel with that bomb. “And going to Har Herzl, the military cemetery where so many soldiers died for Israel, is really sad too. “Dad, the Holocaust was horrible and really sad but, when we were here in Israel this summer lots of people died during the war and the sirens and hiding in shelters was really sad and scary too,” she replied. Finally, out of sheer frustration, I pulled the headphones from her ears and blurted out over Taylor Swift as she played in the background, “Honey, did you understand anything that you saw at Yad Vashem yesterday? Do you have any questions? You haven’t said a word about it!” She was buttoned up – a strange phenomenon for any 10-year-old girl, especially mine. I delicately tried to pry some thoughts and emotions out of this usually talkative prepubescent girl.
Did we make a mistake by allowing her to visit the museum? Was she not ready? Did she not get it? Was she more focused on iPads and music? All of that would be fine too, but I was second-guessing our decision to take the training wheels off and allow her to begin this important ride down history’s road to our past. Was this one of those rare moments where she was a pure 10 year old and not the mature, high-level person I was used to, I wondered.
When the tour ended with a personal story from the museum docent about his parents, adults wiped tears from their cheeks.
She was trying to comprehend the incomprehensible. She, like most adults, had many more questions than answers.
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Our daughter chose to go.Īs she strolled through the halls of the museum, captivated with the photos, videos, testimonies, and history, I saw the girl who is usually talkative and full of energy now fidgeting with her lip and noticeably pensive. Just because she could go did not mean she had to. We agreed that the choice of going to Yad Vashem would be hers. My wife and I discussed this trip at length. She might be 10 ½, but emotionally she seems to me to be older and more sophisticated than I am much of the time. Our daughter is a precocious kid who is very dialed into her emotions. Get The Jewish Standard Newsletter by email and never miss our top stories However, when she was in my arms, just a few minutes into her life, and even as recently as last week, I never anticipated another rite of passage – when my daughter was old enough to visit Yad Vashem, Israel’s memorial to the fallen of the Holocaust.
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