Jerusalem - Holocaust Museum, Chagall Windows, Bethlehem

 

Ghetto in Latvia

We visited Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust Museum.  We’ve been to three other Holocaust museums, so rather than tell the historical story about Hitler’s final solution, I’ll focus on our impressions. There is no doubt that this museum has more artifacts and documents than any other. We knew most of the extermination camps that existed but were surprised by the number of “labor camps” where people were worked to death. We had heard many times about the Warsaw ghetto, where they squeezed many people into a small area, but hadn’t realized the many other eastern European countries that had Jewish ghettos. The number of countries that expelled Jews to the camps included France, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and the Baltic states. The most surprising information was that Britain, the US, and Russia knew as early as 1942, that Jews were dying in the ghettos. Articles appeared in newspapers about extermination camps in 1943. The allies issued statements to Germany saying Germany would be responsible for their actions against the Jews, but Pope Pius XII wouldn’t join this statement, because he wanted to remain neutral. The allies agreed to that their objective was total surrender from the Germans, but never bombed the extermination camps or even the Railroad tracks that led to those camps. The museum made you ponder how could one people do this to another.

Chagall Windows

After our visit we had a very different experience by visiting the Hadassah Hospital. Here are the Marc Chagall windows built in the hospital synagogue. When asked to do an artwork for the hospital, he replied “I’ve been waiting for the Jewish community to come to me, so I could give back”. He designed 12 windows for the 12 tribes of Israel, taking his themes for each tribe based on their history and the blessing that Jacob gave each of his sons. The windows were mounted in 1962, four of them had to be repaired after the Six Day War in 1967. Lunch was at the shopping center in the hospital.

In the grotto of the Church of the Nativity

Some of our group did an excursion to Bethlehem to see the Church of the Nativity. This location has been venerated as Christ’s birthplace since 50 AD. Hadrian then built a Roman God temple over this site as part of his persecution against the Christians. The first church was built here by Helena in 339. The current church was built during the crusader times. We visited the grotto under the altar where Christ was born. Nearby is the Roman Catholic Chapel, where mass was being said. Finally as we left we saw a Statue of St. Jerome who wrote the Latin Vulgate here, the original translation to Latin used for 1100 years.

Tiles from 4th Century Church