OpEdNews » EVALUATING THE ARCHITECTURE AND MUSEUM YAD VASHEM AFTER THE BUILDING OF THE WORLD'S TALLEST BARRIER WALL 2007-2008

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December 29, 2007 at 06:44:23

EVALUATING THE ARCHITECTURE AND MUSEUM YAD VASHEM AFTER THE BUILDING OF THE WORLD'S TALLEST BARRIER WALL 2007-2008

by ALONE and William Walker Page 1 of 6 page(s)

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YAD VASHEM MUSEUM AND THE 8-METER HIGH WALL A FEW KILOMETERS AWAY: ISRAEL AND MEMORIES 2007-2008

By William Walker

Almost anyone who has ever been involved in Holocaust studies knows what Yad Veshem is. It is a museum complex which was started in Israel decades ago to recall the history, background and repercussions of the NAZI-led holocaust on European Jews and Jewry seven decades ago.

In 2007, the Museum Complex Yad Vashem in Israel received the Spanish national prize for education and peace, the Premio Prinicipe de la Concordia. This was an important step for Spain to take as at this very junction in history the entire land is the leading representative of growing anti-semanticist attitudes towards Jews and Muslims on the continent.

Ironically, in contrast to the current-rating of European Union surveys, which have indicated that Spain has the highest rate of anti-Semitism in Europe, Spain’s record during WWII during the time of the Nazis had been somewhat different.

Accordingly, on the serving of the award this past September 2007, Israeli representatives concurred that, unlike many other states in Europe during WWII, Spain had provided both regular refuge and temporary refuge for Jews fleeing from across continental Europe.

Meanwhile, that same month in Madrid on the 24th of September an international conference opened under the title: “The Holocaust and its Significance for Our Times”.

While I laud much of the mission of Yad Veshem and of the direction of conferences in Madrid on the Holocaust’s historiography this past September 2007, I feel that one really needs to visit both Yad Vashem and the massive Israeli Barrier Walls around Palestine nearby to really understand what symbolism these cement-brick monoliths hold in the current cultural war involving peoples of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish background as of 2007 and 2008.

http://www1.yadvashem.org/remembrance/index_remembrance.html

MASSIVE CEMENT MONOLITHS

The main display building of Yad Vashem was renovated a few years back.

In creating this newest central structure--formed completely of unadorned cement of over 8-meters in length (i.e. in triangular form) on three sides , Yad Vashem Museum complex has symbolically mirrored the great and horrible barriers being constructed and consecrated under the watch of Israeli security forces on Palestinian land throughout the Holy Land over the past half-decade.

Much of these so-called Security Barrier Walls are ugly and cut right through neighborhoods in and around biblical places and religious sites, like Hebron, Bethlehem, Ramallah and near Nazareth—“uglifying” the landscape and ghettoizing a great proportion of the population of inhabitants of the Holy Land in 2007-2008.

Unadorned concrete also covered much of German architecture after WWII as the peoples of post-war Germany sought a modern form of simplified architecture to create a new people, society and culture upon.

Unadorned concrete churches and public buildings blossomed across formerly Nazi-controlled Europe as a means of trying to forget—not remember—the recent past of horror.

Then in 1961, East Germany built a monument to divisions between brotherly peoples— a division which history demanded be torn down down three decades later to the delight of the entire planet.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

http://the-teacher.blogspot.com/

"I am from Kansas so I also use the pseudonym 'Kansas' when I write and publish. I keep two blogs--one with blogger and one with GNN. My writings range from reviews to editorials or to travel observations. I also make recommendations related to policy--having both a strong background in teaching foreign languages and degrees in teaching in history and the social sciences. As a midwesterner, I also write on religion and living out ones faith whether it be as a Christian, Muslim or Buddhist perspective."

On my own home page, I also provide information for language learners and travelers http://www.geocities.com/eslkevin/ , http://the-teacher.blogspot.com/ & http://alone.gnn.tv/

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5 comments

Author of four books, part-time college professor, Ph.D American history Carnegie Mellon University.Graduate work in Clark University, Gratz College of Jewish studies.
philip rosenAuthor of four books, part-time college professor, Ph.D American history Carnegie Mellon University.Graduate work in Clark University, Gratz College of Jewish studies.

The Wall and the Holocaust

No suicide bombers, no wall. Acceptance of state of Israel, negotiations on boundaries. Just what you call "Palestinian land" is disputed territory which Arabs have refused to discuss. There would be a Palestinian state had the Arabs wanted one in 1936, 1947, 1967, 2000. Instead there was Intifada. Marriages can be made and recognized by the state but not by the Jewsih Orthodox rabbis.You ignore or downplay Arab rejectionism and attacks.

by philip rosen (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 93 comments) on Saturday, December 29, 2007 at 2:53:33 PM

Authored four books in Canada; Economics in the Workplace, Can Business, labor and Government Talk?, Oh, See Can you See Canada? Can we Assist Students to Work in the 21st Century? Most of my writing centers around Human and Civil Rights. Currently doing articles and videos on the myths of Canada. We often portray ourselves as being squeaking clean in world affairs, when in fact, the opposite is true.
IwasJuliusAuthored four books in Canada; Economics in the Workplace, Can Business, labor and Government Talk?, Oh, See Can you See Canada? Can we Assist Students to Work in the 21st Century? Most of my writing centers around Human and Civil Rights. Currently doing articles and videos on the myths of Canada. We often portray ourselves as being squeaking clean in world affairs, when in fact, the opposite is true.

Well done

Thank you for your well written article "Alone"

Philip you may be interested in this proposal by the Arab Nations.

http://www.mideastweb.org/saudipeace.htm

by IwasJulius (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 30 comments) on Saturday, December 29, 2007 at 4:49:39 PM

I am a retired chemical engineer living in Florida.
ThorI am a retired chemical engineer living in Florida.

Misinformation

The writer is misinformed about marriage in Israel. There is no civil marriage. The only marriages performed in Israel are under religious auspices. This was the pattern everywhere until quite recently. Israel's government recognizes all religious marriages -- Jewish, Christian and Muslim. The government also recognizes all marriages performed outside the country, including civil marriages.

The comparison between Israel's border fence and the Berlin Wall is inappropriate. The Berlin Wall was not constructed "to separate people"; It was built by East Germany to keep East Germans from fleeing to the West. The minefields, watchtowers and barbed wire were all on the eastern side of the wall. Those who sought to breach the wall came only from the eastern side. No one ever tried to break into East Germany.

Israel's security fence, in contrast, is there to keep people out. Visualize a wall 20 feet high, topped with razor wire, running more than 750 miles along the border. In some places, it cuts through private landholdings, severing farms and villages. Where it is impossible to construct the wall, a "virtual wall" is in place, with infra-red detectors, motion detectors and radar to spot infiltration attempts. Helicopters patrol overhad, and law enforcement officials arrest anyone caught trying to sneak through. No, no -- this is not Israel's fence. It's the border security system recently voted by Congress along the US border with Mexico. Its primary purpose is to block immigration by people who just want jobs. If, like Israel, the US had to contend with suicide bombers walking across this border, blowing up kindergartens and pizzerias and supermarkets and religious establishments, you can be sure we would have erected our wall much sooner.

Meanwhile, NATO has contracted with the State of Israel to consult on a security fence about Kosovo.

Why should Israel be the only country required to have open borders? The first duty of any government is to protect its citizens from attack. The security fence has sharply reduced the number of suicide bombings in the country.

ALONE's description of the architecture of the new Holocaust museum at Yad Vashem left much to be imagined. The design is a pyramid laid on its side, penetrating a mountaintop. One enters at the large end, some 50 feet high. The exhibits here are about Jewish life in Europe before WWII. You cannot meander about. There are deep fissures in the floor that require you to travel the designated route. As the visitor proceeds linearly through the museum, the tapered gray concrete walls and ceiling close in on him, while consecutive exhibits show how the world of the Jews was constricted as they were herded down a narrowing path to death. At the far end of the museum, the walls suddenly open out to reveal a magnificent panoramic view of Jerusalem. The symbolism is both obvious and profound.

While ALONE''s comparison of the concrete walls of Yad Vashem's museum with the concrete of the security fence is an interesting idea, it does not turn out to have the same meaning to me. I see both as symbolizing the grim threat of death, and of constricting options for the Jews. The Palestinians have steadfastly refused numerous opportunities to have their own state alongside Israel, beginning with their rejection of the 1948 UN partition of this corner of Ottoman Palestine.The Hamas charter rejects peace with Israel under any circumstances. Fatah recently published a poster showing all of Israel included in a map of "Palestine," with a kaffieh draped over it. As long as both parties of the Palestinian government seek the elimination of the 6 million Jews of Israel, there will be an implied comparison with the Holocaust. As ALONE has reminded us, the walls of the Yad Vashem museum resonate with the wall of security on Israel's border, assuring Jews worldwide that never again will our options narrow to a death camp, a gas chamber, a bullet in the back of the neck..

by Thor (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments) on Sunday, December 30, 2007 at 12:31:52 AM

KEVIN STODA has been blessed to have either traveled in or worked in nearly 100 countries on five continents over the past two and a half decades. He sees himself as a peace educator and have been a promoter of good economic and social development--making him an enemy of my homelands humongous spending and its focus on using weapons to try and solve global issues."I am from Kansas so I also use the pseudonym 'Kansas' when I write and publish. I...

to see more of bio, click on member name
ALONEKEVIN STODA has been blessed to have either traveled in or worked in nearly 100 countries on five continents over the past two and a half decades. He sees himself as a peace educator and have been a promoter of good economic and social development--making him an enemy of my homelands humongous spending and its focus on using weapons to try and solve global issues."I am from Kansas so I also use the pseudonym 'Kansas' when I write and publish. I...

to see more of bio, click on member name

Since I feel more informed on some of these things

EXPERIENTIALLY, I am a bit astonished by the inadmission that using 8 to 10 meter long unadorned concrete blocks doesn't leave one--AS A VISITOR-- cold AND LIFELESS in a sense when visiting any museum on a planet with the similar "plattenbau" architecture of the post-modern era.

The same sorT of unadorned cement is used at Dachau and elsewhere to conjure up the soul-lessness of th 1930s and 1940s of the totalitarian era. It was also definately used to build a new identity across Germany and Europe after thE WAr--even some post modern churches and Chagall windows convey the same sense--even if some hope shines from the colored glass & images.

Finally, the photos of the bare unadorned walls of the misguided plans of some confused defense contractors (Read family of Sharon et. al) show time and again a similarity in either Nazi or Communist German world views. of the 20th Century.

This is anyone's experience when visiting the Walls and the yad Vashem in a single 24 hour period.

It is haunting. The connection is obvious for the visitors who have gone beyond the Potemkin villages of Israel to see what is behind the wall, too.

The disorientation of the border crossing with Jordan and Israel is confusing and shows how the Auschwitz scam was pulled off on so many unsuspecting peoples entering the train yard. This similarity becomes quite real when visiting the Auschwitz display in Yad Vashem,

Go back and experience shuch border crossing and Yad Vashem on a single day.

Tragic.

By the way, I do think Yad Vashem is up to par with other Holocaust museums and memorials--but it's location on the planet in 2007-2008 demands stronger critique (not the powder puff critique.)

Dachua, Bergen Belson, and ohter memorials like that in Berlin have faced heavy critique--NOW IT IS time that the gloves come off and YAD VASHEM gets evaluated even handedly.

I imagine if you are more informed about Yad Vashem than i am about various WWII memorials around the world, you could do a goood critique of Yad Vashem--better than I can.

I encourage you to do so if you apply the same historical criteria to yad Vashem that has been applied in Europe and other locations in recent decades.

by ALONE (131 articles, 1 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 296 comments) on Sunday, December 30, 2007 at 1:11:01 AM

comment to Rosen

I don't recall trying to pass on any of the information that Rosen feels is neglected in the piece.

The focus is on the amzing contrast felt by a someone who went to Bethleham via vorder checkpoints and overseeing the MAMMOTH BARRIER WALLS of UNADORNED CONCRETE and having visited YAD VASHEM on the very same day.

Note: Yad Vashem does very well in many facets--however, the creation of a fascist German type wall has transformed meaning for many a viewer.

Finally, after having followed the HOOPLA about German memorials and memory for 50 years, it is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT THAT ROSEN and others ignore the shortfalls in YAD Vashem design and the misleading narrations of certain tour guides with their own radical programs.

by ALONE (131 articles, 1 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 296 comments) on Sunday, December 30, 2007 at 12:54:40 AM