Today was a real emotional day for all of us. We visited "Yad Vashem" in the morning. This is Israel's Holocaust Memorial, and the world's headquarters for Holocaust studies and information.
We listened to a Holocaust survivor's firsthand description of her story. This is a woman who was torn from her mother at five. She has no idea what her parents, or her siblings, looked like. They were all gone. Kind people took her under her under their wing, and she is now here, with generations of Jewish children.
We then visited the museum, which provides a detailed picture of the events. It really shook the participants up.
Here is an actual sign which used to hang at the train station of the death camp, Treblinka. It hangs at Yad Vashem today
After lunch, we visited Mount Hertzel, the National Cemetery of the state of Israel. We paid our respects to Hertzel, Begin, Shamir, Rabin, and others. We visited the memorial for all those civilians murdered in terrorist acts. We then spent time at the graves of two American boys, in their twenties, who took bullets and were killed, consequently saving others at the same time.
These are the true heroes.
Newly recruited Israeli soldiers at a ceremony in front of Hertzel's grave, on a foggy and rainy evening. (see photo below)
Tomorrow we go to the Western Wall to pray, and we visit the Old City of Jerusalem. And then it's off to Tel Aviv.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON MAYANOT ISRAEL- BIRTHRIGHT TRIPS TO ISRAEL, GO TO: www.mayanotisrael.com