Yad Vashem

Depicted above is a sculpture at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum.

Janus Korchek was a principal at a school and when the Germans came to take the children of the school to the gas chambers, he refused to stay behind at the school and watch the children walk to their death. Instead, he chose to give his life along with the children.

This was a very sober experience for me.  I have been in this Museum before and remember vividly the emotions I felt the first time I experienced this emotional journey.  

It is difficult for me to put into words or to depict through pictures today's field trip.

Ron and I walked together slowly through the exhibit reading accounts, listening to survivors tell their story and at times wiping away tears.

The Children's Memorial made the biggest impact on my mother heart and mind.  

War is ugly, hate is ugly, killing is senseless and ugly.

But when you add innocent children into the mix then all those things become barbaric, senseless, cruel and uglier.

Ron and I are living in a very volatile country right now.  

We are becoming educated on both the Palestinian and Jewish points of view

 on the history of this Holy Land.  

I am trying very hard not to take sides because to me there is not a correct choice.

If you have been reading the news you have seen that both sides provoke

 and both sides are the victims.  

One day a Jew is killed and the next day a Palestinian is killed. 

 None of it is good.  None of it is right.  All of it is UGLY.

And children are the innocent victims.

A day of contemplation.