A Place and a Name

“Even to them I will give in My house and within My walls a place and a name (Yad Vashem) better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.”  Isaiah 56:5

After dinner every evening we gather in a quiet place so that Jim can review the itinerary for the next day, Tim can lead us in scripture reading, and I can ask everybody to share their impressions of the day for this blog.  Last Friday, we visited Yad Vashem, the holocaust memorial/museum, and these were some of our thoughts:

Tim:  “I was thinking that throughout history the world is a monster.  People persecute each other.  Without Jesus in our lives…we would be part of the monster.  We are capable of anything without the Lord.  It can happen over and over again.” At Yad Vashim I read a quote from the Old Testament about when Cain killed Abel and God asked, “Where were you when your brothers blood was spilt?”  When others are needing help, to stand by and do nothing can be convicting. Bad things happen when good people don’t stand up.

Anna:  “A highlight for me was looking at the personal belongings of the Jews who were killed.  One exhibit was of a beautiful diamond and emerald necklace, huge jewels, that a man purchased in preparation for the persecution to come. He had hidden it, and when he went back to his house he just couldn’t sell it — it was a memorial to his wife who had been killed in the camps.  Even though he had nothing, and could have used the money, he just couldn’t sell it.  When you see things like that, it makes you see that they were real people.  Even seeing the bunks from the camps and the stars they had to wear — you see that they had lives.  The individual stories were a highlight for me.”

Jim:  “The section that documented the effect of Christianity since Augustine, right up to the time of the Third Reich was painful and interesting, and consistent with what some of us have been saying for the past years.  A lot of the anti-Israel trends among evangelicals looks like anti-Semitism.  There is deception and propaganda on both sides — is everyone that criticizes
Israel anti-Semitic?  No.  Are there rich Jewish people who are part of the attempts to control the world?  Yes.  People of all ethnic groups and backgrounds can be part of the coalitions to control the world. It is anti-Semitism to blame it on the Jewish people.  It was very provocative for me to consider some of these things.”

Jane:  “The French resistance fighters were so brave to take that stand.  It took a lot of courage…what would we do?  I also saw a story of a girl who had long braids that had never been cut. Her mother knew it would be difficult wherever they were going to keep the girl’s hair clean.  She decided that it would be better to cut her daughter’s hair.  She did, and gave the braids to a neighbor.  They never came back.  The neighbor kept the braids until the war was over.”
Dave:  “I thought it was interesting the nobility of the people who went to great effort to save Jews without bearing arms –without taking up violence.  It reminded me that Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world.  Our weapons are not of this world.”