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Scale Model of the Warsaw Ghetto at the "From Holocaust to Revival" Museum |
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Matityahu Mintz looks at a model of the Warsaw Ghetto displayed at the "From Holocaust to Revival" museum in Kibbutz Yad Mordechai in southern Israel January 18, 2011. Survivors of one the darkest episodes of the Nazi-era have turned to light-and-sound shows and walk-through mockups in the hope their memories will not fade away into the history books. At the museum, a scale model of the Warsaw ghetto shows where its Jews rose up against Hitler's troops in mid-1943, engaging in frantic house-to-house fighting in a bid to halt deportations to death camps. Picture taken January 18, 2011. REUTERS/Amir Cohen.
By: Rinat Harash
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YAD MORDECHAI (REUTERS).- Survivors of one the darkest episodes of the Nazi-era have turned to light-and-sound shows and walk-through mockups in the hope their memories will not fade away into the history books.
At the "From Holocaust to Revival" museum in southern Israel, a scale model of the Warsaw ghetto shows where its Jews rose up against Hitler's troops in mid-1943, engaging in frantic house-to-house fighting in a bid to halt deportations to death camps.
The revolt marked the only significant armed Jewish resistance to Nazi oppression during World War II, but it was crushed with the loss of several thousand Jewish lives. Many of the Ghetto's remaining 50,000 plus inhabitants were sent to the gas chambers, becoming part of the 6 million killed by the Nazis.
Guided by veterans of the revolt, visitors can pace out a reconstructed bunker with a secret toilet access, pack into a railway car recalling those that hauled Jews to death camps, or have yellow Stars of David projected onto their chests.
Such passing impressions of the Holocaust have stirred concern in at least one Israeli commentator, who wondered in the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper whether the "Disneyland approach" was too trivial.
Warsaw ghetto survivor Aliza Melamed said displays of the kind at the museum in Kibbutz Yad Mordechai were necessary to appeal to those for whom the horrors were not a living memory.
"We look more at the contents and we don't need stimulating experiences like projections of yellow stars and all kinds of major sound effects. But I understand we do this for teenagers," she said.
"I accepted it because I guess this is the way in today's world, to reach people."
Museum designer David Gafni describes the exhibits as an extension of commemorative efforts such as the annual tours of Polish wartime sites for young Jews from Israel and elsewhere.
"This is the thing we work for, to shock, to cause agitation and help explain to the young generation," he said.
Yad Mordechai, named after Ghetto resistance leader Mordecai Anielewicz, is among the more embattled of Israeli communities, having weathered an Egyptian army assault in the 1948 war and, more recently, the rocket and mortar attacks of Palestinian militants in the neighbouring Gaza Strip. Israelis readily link their ethos of resilience to the Holocaust, something that, paradoxically, can create emotional distance from the vulnerable European Jewry of World War Two.
Pnina, a high school student visiting the Warsaw ghetto museum, sounded discomfited by the Star of David that appeared on her clothes -- an ephemeral, weightless version of the cloth patch that marked out Jews during the Holocaust.
"This feeling is kind of difficult for me," she said.
"I understand it's a part of thinking what happened there and feeling as if you are different among others. It can cause a feeling of being conspicuous among others."
(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Matthew Jones)
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Today's News
January 19, 2011
Retrospective of the Leading Mexican Artist Gabriel Orozco on Display at Tate Modern
Rediscovered Painting by Dutch Artist Rembrandt on Loan at the Toledo Museum of Art
Kai Althoff's Punkt, Absatz, Bluemli (period, paragraph, Bluemli) at Gladstone Gallery
Rutger's Zimmerli Art Museum Returns Rare Renaissance Portrait to Rightful Owners
First British Portrait of a Black African Muslim and Freed Slave Goes on Display
John Hancock Tower in Boston Selected to Receive AIA Twenty-Five Year Award
Adjunct Curator at ICP, Okwui Enwezor, Appointed as Director of Haus der Kunst
Scale Model of the Warsaw Ghetto at the "From Holocaust to Revival" Museum
A Special Exhibition on the Phenomenon James Dean Opens at the Kennedys in Berlin
Social Documentary Photographer Milton Rogovin Dies at Age 101 in New York
Just a Few Months Before Opening, Minefields Circle Jesus' Traditional Baptism Site
Artists, Designers Join Forces for the Second Annual Green Auction at Christie's
The Wallace Collection Announces the Appointment of Dr. Christoph Vogtherr as New Director
Carlton Hobbs Presents Inspired by Antiquity: Classical Influences on 18th and 19th Century Furniture and Works of Art
Restoration Of The Much Loved Waterloo Poem by Sue Hubbard
Stunning Installation of New Oil Paintings by Carlos Luna at Heather James Fine Art
Stealing the Mystic Lamb: The True Story of the World's Most Coveted Masterpiece
The Enduring Beauty of Jewelry Across the Ages Dazzles in Newark Museum's Lore Ross Jewelry Gallery
A Dynamic Array of Art as Throngs Visit the Second Miami International Art Fair
Group Exhibition to Examine Art and Democracy in Europe
Art Madrid 2011 Maintains the Number of Galleries and Increases the Quality Level
Roxy Paine's Steel Sculpture Ferment to be Installed in Kansas City Sculpture Park
How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr. Foster? Documentary Traces the Rise of Norman Foster
After 30 Years at Sotheby's, Fergus Lyons Appointed as Head of Furniture at Bonhams
Brooklyn Museum Acquires 18th Century Painting by Agostino Brunias Depicting Colonial Elite
Helsinki Mayor Jussi Pajunen Explores Possible Guggenheim Museum in Finland
O'Keeffiana: Art and Art Materials from the Extensive Collection of the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum
Mixed-Media Artist Katya Bonnenfant Opens Second Exhibition Under New Moniker at Haines Gallery
Texas Foundation to Sell Matisse Set 'The Backs'
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