A Marathon of Emotion
Our day of touring the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem started with an early morning exploration of emotion and a discussion of our own family connections to the holocaust. We each selected a card on which was written an emotion – anger, fear, joy, revenge, etc. Then after a moment of personal reflection, we were asked to share with the group what this emotion means personally and to connect this emotion to the Holocaust. Although it was perhaps too early in the morning to fully commit to this emotional exercise for some of us, this was an effective way to prep us for the marathon of emotions this day was going to bring.
We took a brief tour of the Prime Minister and President's neighborhoods, and then made our way to the Holocaust museum. The museum was crowded – other Taglit groups, families, and groups of soldiers packed the museum. With our radio headsets connecting us to our guide, we stepped into the 5-year-old uniquely fortified museum. The air was cool, almost as if we had stepped into a naturally chilly cave of sorts.
The content of the museum needs no explanation – detailed accounts of individual victim and survivor stories, graphic photos and video, and multimedia presentations, all documenting the atrocities of the Holocaust. The mood was solemn among our group, many of us struggling to hold back tears, some successful at masking our emotions, and some of us not. We watched a chilling recorded testimonial detailing a survivor’s life in Auschwitz, which turned into a breathtaking love story between two prisoners. After leaving the concentration camp, the two prisoners reunited and married -- "If we ever get out of here, we will marry. And we did."
Later we explored the children's memorial – a dark room dotted with bright specks of light representing 1.5 million children murdered. The four hours in the museum were an emotional rollercoaster for most of us. We then boarded our bus to make the 3 hour trip to our northern Israel Kibbutz.
The Kibbutz greeted us with food – lots of it. After dinner we moved into our spacious cabins, and played some fun group games including a rock-paper-scissors tournament and a rowdy game of "Where the Wind Blows."
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