Yad Vashem

One of the most soul-stirring stops on my recent trip to Israel had little to do with it's role as the birthplace of Christ.  We took an afternoon at Yad Vashem, The Holocaust Museum and what I saw there had a great impact on me.  We were not allowed to take pictures inside, so the only ones that I have are from the Avenue of the Righteous Among the Nations and the Children's Memorial, but I do have something else that I was left with after my visit.  As I wandered through each exhibit, I was struck by the cruelty and inhumanity that was perpetrated upon the Jews.  I saw how the Nazi regime systematically tried to wipe the Jewish race off the face of the earth.  In the spirit of Pharoah, Haman, and Titus, they set out to remove every remembrance of God's people from the record.  The name, "Yad Vashem" comes from Isaiah 56:5 and loosely translated means, "a place and a name."  As I walked through the museum, I could hear the voices of the 6 million Jews, over 1.5 million of them children, who were mercilessly slaughtered at the hands of diabolical men, whispering, "Please, remember me.  Don't let my death be in vain.  Never again allow the world to sit by and rationalize their inaction while people are being slaughtered."  The first couple of stanzas of this poem began to take shape while I was in the museum.  Other impressions were jotted down on paper in the days following.  It is only now that I have been able to gather those thoughts and impressions into coherent form.  I hope that they will stir you as they have stirred me.

Yad Vashem

Horrific scenes in black and white portrayed upon the wall,
From 70 years of darkness, their silenced voices call.
Their homes destroyed, their lives cut short, forced to hide or flee
I see them now and hear them say, Oh please remember me!

The stories of their brokenness, the pictures of their pain
The haunting questions of the past, and history’s shameful stain
The darkest secrets of our time, revealed for all to see
So that others will not have to die, Oh please remember me!

Down a pathway marked with broken stones, solemnly we are led,
Into a room of portraits, where children’s names are read
Five candles of remembrance, reflected endlessly,
The voice of every murdered child cries, Please remember me!

An Avenue of Righteous Ones commemorates the light
Brought to the hopeless darkness by those who saw their plight
The ones among the nations who heard their desperate plea
And sacrificed and risked their lives, when they heard, Remember me.

From the ashes of those tragic days, a nation has arisen
And like the phoenix they ascend from the smoke of hatred’s prison
The voice of the heroes reminds us of the price paid to be free
And lest this ever happen again, they cry, remember me.