Yad Vashem & Mount Herzl

Today was amazing, but emotionally draining, so I'll keep this short. This morning we went deep into West Jerusalem, to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum of Israel.  Before this semester, no particular connection between Israel and the Holocaust ever occurred to me, but now it's incredible how intertwined their histories really are. 

Yad Vashem, visitors' center entrance

The entire hillside is covered with thousands of trees, called the Garden of the Righteous Allies.  Each tree has a plaque with the name of someone who rescued at least one Jew during the Holocaust.  This tree was planted for Oskar Schindler (as in Schindler's List)

 

Right next to Yad Vashem is Mount Herzl, named for Theodore Herzl, father of Zionism in the modern political sense (and therefore, it could be argued, the State of Israel itself.)  Originally buried in Vienna, his body was moved here to this grave in 1948.  

I'm glad Miriam's in this picture with me to draw attention away from my still-puffy eyes... I bawled my way through that museum. I'd never been to a Holocaust museum before, and though I'm not sure I could handle it again any time soon, I'm so glad I had the experience today.