Introduction
It serves as an official memorial to all Holocaust victims. Its mission is to preserve memories while recognizing the Jews who fought valiantly against their greatest oppressors, the Nazis (Singer 36). The gentiles are also remembered for their unselfish assistance to the Jews during this time of conflict. This museum also conducts research on the topic of Genocide, particularly on mayors, with the goal of preventing that such oppressions do not occur again in the future. It was founded in 1953 on the slopes of Mount Herzl on the western side.
Its establishment was planned in the years following World War II.It served as a form of response to the many murder cases that were being experienced, especially of the Jews who were living in the land perceived to be for the Nazi. Its proposal was initially arrived at in the year of 1942 in the month of September (Singer 36). It occurred in the usual board meeting of the national fund for the Jews. Mordecai Shenhavi was the one who came up with the whole idea. The discussion of the plan was carried out in the month of August in 1945. A detailed discussion of the plan then followed at the meeting in London referred to as the Zionist meeting. The establishment of an interim board of Zionist leaders was then formed among them. There included Baruch Zuckerman, Shlomo Zalman Shragai and David Remez who was the meeting chair. An office for Yad Vashem was opened in February, 1946 in Tel Aviv with its first plenary session convening in the month of June the same year (Sanders). The Holocaust first research conference was held in July, 1947 at a university in Jerusalem called Hebrew university. The works and activities at the museum later came to a standstill for a period of two years after occurrence of the war of independence in May, 1948. The Israel's Parliament called Knesset passed the law of Yad Vashem without any opposition which formed the beginning of an authority for remembering the heroes and martyrs.
The Role of Yad Vashem
The Yad Vashem plays the roles of educating, documenting and investigating as well as commemorating. Development courses which are professional are organized by Yad Vashem to be used by those in academics in Israel and the rest of the world (Sanders). It has enabled academicians to teach students well when it comes to making them understand the Holocaust. Exhibitions about this historical infamous event are often held annually where the names of the victims are collected. The museum role therefore is to ensure the memory of those who fought for the rights of Jews. Hence, the oppression from the Nazi is always in people's minds to assure such problems do not occur again. It is done through the different ceremonies that are held to remember and commemorate these people by supporting all the research projects in this sector. Pages of testimonies, photos, documents and artifacts have been documented over the years. All these aim at memorizing the victims of the Holocaust.
Activities and Initiatives
Workshops, symposia, and conferences are organized and carried out. It has increased global awareness of whatever happened to the Jews during the World Wars I and II. This museum has launched an online campaign which is in Arabic and its aim is to promote Yad Vashem's website (Singer 37). The hall of names is situated at the end of the museum historical narratives and serves as a repository for the testimonial pages of the millions of the Genocide losses serving as a memorial of those that perished.
Works Cited
Sanders, Edmund. “Holocaust Art Endures at Israel’s Yad Vashem Museum.” Los Angeles Times, 26 Dec. 2010. http://articles.latimes.com/2010/dec/26/entertainment/la-ca-culture-exchange-20101226. Accessed 12 Nov. 2017.
Singer, Yehudit. “60 Years of Commemorating the Holocaust.” ShiurTimes, May 2008, pp. 36-37, http://issuu.com/shiurtimes/docs/may2008. Accessed 12 Nov. 2017.
