The Ghetto Fighters' House Museum

 Seventy years ago in 1949 a survivors of the atrocities of the Warsaw Ghetto left Poland and struck out for a new land -- Israel. They named their new home Bet Lomain HaGeto't. That same year they opened a museum in honor of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and called it the Ghetto Fighters' House Museum. Lonely Planet even gave it an eye (as in go look at it).

If my room faced in a slightly different direction, I would be able to see the museum. It is that close. When I stopped by on Thursday I did not intend to visit. go I popped in to to ask about cost (40 Shekels, about $12) and their hours (9 am-4 pm Sunday through Thursday). When I explained my hours on the dig site, and how I was staying in the Kibbutz, the woman was kind enough to let me in for free for the last 30 minutes. It meant I was a bit rushed, and I did not bring note taking materials, or my camera (though I did take a few pictures with my cell phone). It also meant I missed the other section, the Yad Layeled Children's Memorial Museum, a memorial housed in a cylindrical building in honor of the 1.5 million Jewish children killed in the Holocaust.

My initial impression of the museum that day was unfavorable. I felt it didn't cover anything new. A back room dedicated to Anne Frank's story felt out of place since most of the rest of the museum talked about the Warsaw ghetto, and their struggles. Instead I would have preferred a room talking about the history of the Kibbutz. I've heard the members sold a recipe to a frozen food company (Borden's?) and made a lot of money. The Kibbutz has transformed from a shared community into a lovely gated community with people driving nice cars. 

My impression changed when I read in Lonely Planet this was the first Holocaust museum in the world. The first. In the world. That changes my perception. It set the standard for Holocaust Museums. It has clearly been updated in the past 70 years. Now they have iPads with people's faces and stories on them. The iPads stories are based on a book of oral traditions recorded from the early settlers of the Kibbutz that was about 5 inches thick. Both the electronic and paper versions were available to look at.

Perhaps I'll go back again. If so, I'll update this post.

UPDATE: I returned on the 103 degree day in week 3. My impression was much more favorable. I had not appreciated that in the three-story building was a five-story museum. How does that happen, you ask? They have a two floor basement.

The museum is spacious. It was redesigned in 2002. The space allows people to mentally, physically, and spiritually to absorb the atrocities. Having spent time here, I can't imagine the Holocaust museums in Washington, DC or Jerusalem would be better if only because here at the Ghetto Fighters House Museum I had most of the space to myself. I could read the descriptions and absorb what I was seeing without distraction of other people. Of course a museum cannot stay in business if it is always this quiet, but on that super hot mid-week summer day it was that quiet.

My favorite part of the museum was Yizkor Hall. Walking in the dark room (perhaps 30 feet by 30 feet, though my sense of space is probably not accurate) there are dark walls with tiny blue dots on them. Touching the blue dots a menu appeared. Touching the menu illuminated individual items as if a drawer was opened. Each item has a story. Each item represents someone whose life was touched by the Holocaust. By displaying each item one at a time (or sometimes in a small grouping) it respected the individual histories and helped keep the focus on one person at a time making it all the more real. I was the only one in the large room and could pick and choose what I wanted to see. It would have been impossible to absorb it all.

I respected the solemnity of the room, and the fragility of the artifacts and did not take any pictures.

 From there I walked to the white cylindrical building called Yad Layeled, the world's first children's Holocaust museum designed to educate children ages 10 and up about the Holocaust. Only now that I am reading the website did I realize the museum is designed to allow people to touch the exhibits. I was one of only a few people in the entire museum, and the guard was anxious to go home.

It is a funny shaped building that also goes deep underground. It was also very dark inside.

 


I'm glad I went back.