Sorry, a day late, delayed by Yom Haatzmaut festivities today.
Families massing at Har Herzl just before the siren. The cemetery, unfortunately, was packed. We visited the plots of the fallen from 1948, where most of the graves naturally had few, if any visitors. Some of these photos are of Holocaust survivors: born in Poland, Czechoslovakia, came on aliya in 1946, '48, died in '48. Note the one where the mother's name and place of birth unknown.
There is also a picture of the older two people over a grave: they were the brother and sister of a young soldier brought up and killed at age 16 defending his hometown of Yerushalayim. They shared fascinating stories of their brother and their childhood in pre-war Jerusalem.
Finally, the president and prime minister's entourage in my office at Yad Vashem, the white building beside the limos (at in Oz, the VIPs are behind the curtain).
The Yasamnikim sped off and we were allowed back into the office after taking the lunch leftovers Peres and Bibi left behind. An interesting and moving day.
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4 comments:
Thanks for sharing, Dodi. Looks like quite a moving day (and also kinda fun to work at Yad Vashem). Yom HaZ feels pretty far removed here in Amrika...
If there could be a funny moment on Yom HaZ it came when one of the Yasamnikim on the motorcycle said just before speeding off, "Which way are we going?" Good to know they're in the president's motorcade.
Also, the sister of the long-deceased soldier from '48 said she was in Rechovot when her brother was killed in besieged Jlem and learned only weeks later after making her way through Burma Road. There was no communication out of the city then.
The two also told us about getting to know the families of other soldiers buried nearby over the 50+ years since Har Herzl was built. (Bodies were originally buried in caskets near Gan Sakher in a mass grave before being transferred when the State was more stable.) You get to know ppl after doing same thing every year on YomZ and they've seen those families get older, stop coming, etc. Interesting.
The plots packed with families in the other pics are mostly from 73.
Wow. There is no more important place to be than on Har Herzl sharing memories with the families that sacrificed their loved ones for this country.
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