UPDATE: President Bush At Yad Veshem Holocaust Memorial, Israel Asks Why Auschwitz Nazi Death Camp Was Not Bombed By USUS President George W. Bush completed a tour of Israel's official Holocaust memorial today calling it a "sobering reminder" that evil must be resisted and praising victims for not losing their faith.
The Yad Vashem memorial was closed to the public and under heavy guard Friday, with armed soldiers standing on top of some of the site's monuments and a police helicopter and surveillance blimp hovering in the air overhead.
Wearing a yarmulke, Bush placed a red-white-and-blue wreath on a stone slab that covers ashes of Holocaust victims taken from six extermination camps. He also lit a torch memorializing the victims.
"I was most impressed that people in the face of horror and evil would not forsake their God. In the face of unspeakable crimes against humanity, brave souls — young and old — stood strong for what they believe," Bush said.
"I wish as many people as possible would come to this place. It is a sobering reminder that evil exists, and a call that when evil exists we must resist it," he said.
It was Bush's second visit to the Holocaust memorial, a regular stop on the visits of foreign dignitaries. His first was in 1998, as governor of Texas. The last U.S. president to visit was Bill Clinton in 1994.
Bush was accompanied on his tour by a small party that included Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
At the compound, overlooking a forest on Jerusalem's outskirts, Bush visited a memorial to the 1.5 million Jewish children murdered in the Holocaust, featuring six candles reflected 1.5 million times in a hall of mirrors. At the site's Hall of Remembrance, he heard a cantor sing a Jewish prayer for the dead.
Bush was visibly moved during his hour-long tour of the site, said Yad Vashem's chairman, Avner Shalev.
"Twice, I saw tears well up in his eyes," Shalev said.
At one point, Bush viewed aerial photos of the Auschwitz death camp taken during the war by U.S. forces and called Rice over to discuss why the American government had decided against bombing the site, Shalev said.
"We should have bombed it," Bush said, according to Shalev.
In the memorial's visitors' book, the president wrote simply, "God bless Israel, George Bush."
Shalev presented Bush with illustrations of the Bible drawn by the Jewish artist Carol Deutsch, who perished in the Holocaust.
Deutsch created the works while in hiding from the Nazis in Belgium. He was informed upon, and died in 1944 in the Buchenwald camp. After the war, his daughter Ingrid discovered that the Nazis had confiscated their furniture and valuables but had left behind a single item: a meticulously crafted wooden box adorned with a Star of David and a seven-branched menorah, containing a collection of 99 of the artist's illustrations of biblical scenes.
The originals are on display at Yad Vashem. The memorial recently decided to produce a special series of 500 replicas, the first of which was to be presented to Bush.
Debbie Deutsch-Berman, a Yad Vashem employee whose grandfather was Deutch's brother, said she was proud that Bush would be given her relative's artwork.
"These are not just his paintings, they are his legacy, and the fact that they survived shows that as much as our enemies tried to destroy the ideas that these paintings embody, they failed," she said.
President Bush To Visit Yad Vashem Israel Holocaust Memorial
(January 10, 2008 - Jerusalem) United States President George W. Bush will visit Yad Vashem on Friday, January 11, 2008.
During his visit to Yad Vashem, the President, guided by Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev, will visit the Holocaust History Museum, and the
Museum of Holocaust Art, hold a wreath-laying ceremony in the Hall of Remembrance, and visit the Children's Memorial. He will be accompanied
by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, President Shimon Peres, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council Joseph (Tommy) Lapid.
Yad Vashem, the Holocaust remembrance and education center in Jerusalem,
was established by the Knesset in 1953. Located on the Mount of Remembrance, Yad Vashem is dedicated to Holocaust remembrance, documentation, research and education. The Holocaust History Museum opened in March 2005, culminating a decade long redevelopment plan that
has prepared Yad Vashem to meet the challenges of the next century.
The Museum seeks to tell the story of the Holocaust from the Jewish personal perspective, via artifacts, testimonies, archival material, artwork and more. At the end of the Holocaust History Museum is the Hall of Names, where Pages of Testimony recording the details of Jews
murdered in the Holocaust are kept. Yad Vashem has thus far been able to recover some 3.3 million names; efforts are underway to recover the identities of the remaining unknown millions. The Museum of Holocaust Art displays art created during the Holocaust - whether in the ghettos, in hiding or in the camps.
During the wreath-laying ceremony in the Hall of Remembrance, President Bush will rekindle the Eternal Flame, and lay a wreath on a stone slab under which are ashes of victims from the Holocaust brought from the concentration and extermination camps. The Hall of Remembrance is the main memorial site at Yad Vashem, where official memorial ceremonies
are held in Israel. At the ceremony, President Bush will be accompanied by Yad Vashem Chairman Shalev, Prime Minister Olmert, President Peres, and Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council Lapid. The Ankor Children's Choir will perform "Walk to Caesarea" and Cantor Asher Hainowitz will recite a Jewish prayer for the dead, El Maleh Rachamim.
Following the Hall of Remembrance ceremony, the President will visit the Children's Memorial, in memory of the 1.5 million Jewish children murdered in the Holocaust. At the exit to the Children's Memorial, the President will sign the Guest Book.
At the conclusion of his visit, Shalev will present President Bush with a special gift, a replica of
illustrations from the Bible, by Jewish artist Carol Deutsch. The original is on display in the Museum of Holocaust Art. Recently Yad Vashem decided to produce a special, numbered series of the portfolio limited to 500 copies, the first of which will be presented to the President. Deutsch created the works while in hiding in Belgium.
He was informed upon, and died in 1944 in Buchenwald, leaving behind 99 vividly colored paintings in an illustrated wooden box, which he bequeathed to his daughter Ingrid. Details of Carol Deutsch's story
are available at:
http://www1.yadvashem.org
Yad Vashem, the Holocaust remembrance and education center in Jerusalem,
was established by the Knesset in 1953. Located on the Mount of
Remembrance, Yad Vashem is dedicated to Holocaust remembrance,
documentation, research and education. Through the International School
for Holocaust Studies, the Museum Complex, the International Institute
for Holocaust Research, the Library and Archives, the Hall of Names, and
its monuments and memorials, Yad Vashem seeks to meaningfully impart the
legacy of the Shoah for generations to come.
Drawing on the memories of the past, Yad Vashem aims to strengthen commitment to Jewish continuity and protect basic human values. www.yadvashem.org
No comments:
Post a Comment