Trip Day 18 - Holocaust Museum

Official (adjusted) itinerary:

Yad Vashem • Machaneh Yehuda market

Today we travel to Yad Vashem, the stirring “everlasting memorial” to the more than six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust. With the world’s largest archives of material relating to the Holocaust—more than 50 million documents and artifacts—this museum and memorial complex, while built on the Mount of Remembrance, aims not only to remember, but to educate. We’ll spend the morning at this solemn site learning about the horrors of Hitler’s “Final Solution.” We are sometimes able to hear a moving first-person account from a Holocaust survivor, although this cannot be guaranteed. We meet survivor Rina Quint and hear her personal testimony.

Then we explore the bustling produce market at Machaneh Yehuda, one of Jerusalem’s oldest Jewish neighborhoods, where we’ll also have free time for lunch on our own. Then we’ll return to our hotel and have the balance of the day at leisure.

 You will enjoy dinner with an Orthodox family in Jerusalem tonight.

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Monday September 18

This is going to be a very difficult day for me. I knew it in advance and yes, it was. I have no idea how to report about this day. How to write this down. 

Being German I have been taught a lot about the Holocaust in school. That doesn't make it easier to understand why these horrible things can happen in the world. 

We met at 8:15 am because the museum opens at 9 am. Of course the bus took us there. 

The museum was very well done. Of course no photographing allowed. I had a lot going through my head anyway and when I saw a doll just like mine in the exhibit I lost it and had to cry. But it wasn't just about this. Why is there still so much cruelty in the world? 

Then we walk to an education building and into a class room were Rena Quint waits for us. She is a survivor and has told her story many times. It is a heartbreaking story and she was just a little child then. Her book is fresh off the press. She had a few with her and we got one. She was a sweet lady and we were happy to have met her.

If her book is half as good as  the story she told it will be a fascinating read. It is called "Daughter of many Mothers" and is also available through Amazon. 

The bus drops us off at the old market where we are on our own for lunch. 

The choice for a lunchplace was difficult. So much choice. We ended up in a Lebanese place. 

Photos of the menu first. James and I shared number 29. 

At the market we had bought some dates which we washed and enjoyed in the hotel. 

I think it was 6:15 pm when the group met again. Waiting at the end of our pedestrian street for the bus. 

The bus took us to the neighborhood of our ultra orthodox jewish family. 

I think our host was actually the mother of these young people. 

All 17 (16 and Yael) of us were around the large table. The young couple with their child too. They didn't eat though. We ate while he explained their ultra orthodox Jewish life. Sometimes she confirmed what he was saying. I appreciated that they explained to us but had a difficult time to keep quiet though and not ask questions which could have been perceived as judgemental. Very sweet people. 

Alltogether a strange day. Strange but good nevertheless. 

And when I think about it now a few days later I think I was judging. I find it hard to believe that studying their religious writings all day long for all their lives (not working a paid job) can be so important that the wife has to work and bring money into the family while having maybe 8 to 13 children and raising them is ok. They lead a simpler life which is admirable and have a modesty dress code which is admirable. The government subsidizes them though from taxpayer money which some people do not understand. And (for example) having a rule that women have to have their hair covered and then wearing a wig looks like cheating to me. And a few other examples. He was quite proud that "Jews find a way to do things" (around their many rules). But as I said, they were very sweet and well meaning and happy.