The Yad Vashem Diaries II

Day 3 commenced with a guided tour of the Historical Museum. Ephraim our guide has something like thirty years experience with the Museum and has been a director in some capacity since the mid 1990s, so there is pretty much no-one more qualified or willing to take us through the museum. Naturally it was a different experience to my past excursions, and the tour was far more about the curation of the museum than the content itself. We had a debrief session with all the participants afterwards, and later visited the Learning Centre, which has a fabulous collection of the ‘big questions’ people ask in relation to the holocaust and filmed responses by relevant individuals (scholars, survivors, educators etc). An RE teacher from Qld and I viewed and pair discussed our responses to the “Where was God?” category, and I found that helpful, especially to hear from Jewish perspectives, and because I plan to involve this in some way with my Educational Project. The final session for the day was an information session about the Educational Project and the expectations regarding submission and presentation etc.

That evening was an optional tour of the Western Wall Tunnels. I’ve never going to knock an opportunity to see anything Herodian (it only took a second to remember what a fangirl I can be) so it was really a special pleasure to have an evening tour because the site was almost isolated and there was no pressure from other tourists. Because of security reasons we also got to walk back through the walls rather than exiting near the Fortress Antonia exit as I did last time. The Western Wall complex was definitely quieter than I’ve ever seen it before. There were still a few staunch devotees even after 9pm, and it had a completely different feel to it than daylight visits.

Walking through this part felt like Petra

Having the tour of a site from antiquity was a great prelude to the next day’s lecture on Judaism and anti-Judaism in the ancient world. This lecture had me completely in my element, and I ended up creating a worksheet for my Year 11 Ancient class in the midst of it because I was so inspired.

Some of this related to the distinctiveness of Judaism compared with Roman religion:

Differences with Judaism from typical Roman worship

     ·         God is invisible, incorporeal form.
·         No statues of deity.
·         Only one temple as site of sacrifice.
·         Lived by ancestral law (Torah) interpreted by a qualified leader (different interpretations eg Pharisee, Sadducee, Essenes etc).
·         Presence of a Holy Land.
·         Infrequency of agricultural festivals.
·         Signs of covenant – ritual baptism, kosher food, circumcision, Sabbath (“the day of Saturn” – Cassius Dio)

A second lecture in the day was about Judaism and anti-Judaism in the medieval world, and because we spent a considerable amount of time analysing individual visual sources, the lecture didn’t quite cover material I was anticipating. Essential information however included the following, which really helps develop understanding about existing forms of antisemitism in the C19 and 20.

·         The Nature of the Medieval Experience for Jews.

          Members of religious minorities in Christian and Islamic worlds.

      ·         Under the rule of a non-Jewish majority who had universalistic tendencies (ie wanted conversion).
·         In many cases conversion was pressured through propaganda attacks, organised missions etc which were supported by the political leaders.
·         Lack of homeland in time of diaspora.

Marginalised members of the society, uncommonly being regarded as citizens.
·         Full-fledged citizenship predicated upon being Christian/Muslim. In some instances/locations this might result in minimal daily impact, but in other places it was significant.
·         Certainly there was a distinct difference and Jews were regarded as foreigners and therefore denied the rights the majority may have received.
·         Jews perceived as a collective entity rather than individual members of society. “The Jews” Violence, persecution and tax paying given as a group.
·         Blood libels (Jews murdered in order to collect the blood of Christians for unleavened bread, potions etc). Characteristically levelled at collective whole groups not individuals.

These attitudes impacted perceptions of and actions towards Jews.
·         Jewish community very connected in consequence.
·         Communal discipline. Everyone connected to the village/synagogue/community.

There was a small allocation of time to the recorded Christian responses to Jews and Judaism, which are things I covered in more depth in my Masters course.

The anti-Semitic flavour of the day continued with a lecture and then Q&A session on antisemitism in the C19/20. This meant we had three 1 ½ hour lectures in a row about such subject matter and by the time we reached the Q&A session and then the pedagogical application seminar, it felt pretty intense and exhausting. Much of the material had been covered in our online course completed prior to the seminar starting, but it was still a helpful reminder. What I found particularly interesting was how much the socialist movements in Germany followed or were a form of response to earlier European Revolutions (ie Industrial, French and Bolshevik).

It was also emphasised that antisemitism is RACIALLY not RELIGIOUSLY motivated and Nazi definitions of Jewish race are different from Jewish definitions of what the Jewish race was.

By 6pm most were very ready to leave the museum complex, but because it was Thursday, the museum had a late close and we had the option to remain behind.

The museum at night

 I was pretty tired but I’d planned earlier on to use this opportunity, because I don’t know how long my stamina will hold out. In previous visits I’ve enthusiastically read every section of the earlier galleries of the museum, and either run out of time or motivation before the end. So this time I skipped briefly through the first half and started in the Resistance gallery, which considers partisan activity, revolts and hiding and the actions of the Righteous Among the Nations. I took the time to read all the accounts of the Righteous and found a really interesting one of a Muslim family who hid a Jewish family, and two generations later the Jews housed the descendants of the Muslims when they fled during the Balkan crises. I made it through to the sections on the Death Marches and Liberation and the aftermath and had the patience to read the testimonies – there were some really tragic medical notes about the women who endured the death marches, and legal documents about the repatriation of children who had been cared for by others (often Christians) during the wars then their Jewish parents sought their return. A few cases where adoption had occurred had some real complications and one of the video testimonials was from a child who had been caught in the middle and had lost her sense of Jewish identity – both in name and religion – and how she struggled to find her place in the 1950s when there was legal contestation.

I enjoyed the experience of walking through the museum when it was much quieter (our guided tour the day before had been very crowded in places) and although I was once again completely exhausted upon return to the hotel, I wasn’t too bad by the next morning, but I was very relieved we only had a half day of classes.

I haven’t been doing pretty much anything apart from eating, sleeping and participating in the program to date. I did manage one movie earlier in the week, but that was because I was too excited to sleep after the Western Walls (I know, right?!).

Our final sessions of the week before the start of Shabbat were about Nazi ideologies and Nazi Persecutions between 1933-1939. Again, most of this has been covered or known before, but it is essential for discussion in seminars of this nature.

Basic notes of importance:

Revolution, Romanticism and Youth Movements – huge influences to Nazism.

Central Ideas.

Totalitarianism.

•   Individual needs were totally subordinated to those of the state. The Führer was considered not just a leader, but the teacher, the commander, the supreme guide and even the saviour. The worship of Hitler in Nazi Germany was close to religious ecstacy.
• Justification of the establishment of a repressive police state, in which the security forces could exercise power arbitrarily. Gradually all political components and other undesirable elements were marginalised, harassed and eventually imprisoned and exterminated.
• Individuality was repressed. New aesthetics of corporate strength and power were valued

Militarism

•        Euthanasia program. Promoting racial hygiene which involved killing those considered ‘unworthy of life’ and shameful for the master race.
•        Colonisation of Eastern Europe (Generalplan Ost). Part of the Lebensraum policy and a fulfilment of the Drang nach Osten (Drive towards the East) ideology.

Eliminationist Anti-semitism

•        A pseudo- scientific form of Social Darwinism.
•        A biological prejudice. Attibutable by some to the emancipation of Jews and the rapid urbanisation and greater social mobility of Jews (Haskalah Enlightenment).
•        With the decreasing role of religion in public life, a combination of growing nationalism and resentment of the socio-economic success of the Jews a new form of antisemitism appeared.
•        Political hygiene. Dehumanisation of the Jews seen as the solution to the peril they present. The contrast emphasises the superiority. The uglier the Jew the brighter the Aryan.

   

The final session involved a large degree of visual sources and discussion about the development of restrictions in the Nazi state as a result of these existing ideologies. We were then taken back to the hotel and had a couple of hours before the optional Shabbat service at the Jerusalem synagogue. Clearly, this was not something I was going to miss.