Jerusalem Attractions

Venue: Yad Vashem    When: Daily; not Sat

Yad Vashem, in Jerusalem, is Israel's memorial, museum and centre of learning dedicated to the Holocaust. It was established in 1953 by the Israeli government as the monument to a nation's mourning, in remembrance of the six million victims of the Holocaust, or Shoah.

One of the centre's museums tracks the escalation of anti-Semitic feeling in Germany, which was to culminate in Hitler's "Final Solution" for the Jews. A second exhibition features artwork from concentration camp internees and Jewish artists. The visible side of Yad Vashem's massive historical archive can be witnessed in the Hall of Names, a project attempting to record the name and photograph of each victim in a library of remembrance. Visitors can access the files for research purposes.

The exterior exhibits include memorials to the adults and children of the Shoah, as well as a replica of the Warsaw Ghetto Fighters memorial. An avenue of trees marks a homage to those, like Oscar Schindler and Raul Wallenberg, who fought against all odds to save the Jews. Other works by contemporary artists include elements from history - a six-branched candelabra represents the six million dead, whilst an original box-car donated by the Polish Railways hangs over the forests of this Hill of Remembrance, to remind us that human evil is never-ending.