The threatening clouds in the sky on Friday matched the feelings engendered by this visit to Yad Vashem, Israel's national Holocaust memorial. Having been to Auschwitz, I was prepared for the likely impact.
The terrible story is carefully laid out along a timeline, starting with a historical summary of Jewish persecution.
On my visit to Auschwitz in 1994, I was undone by how powerfully the place spoke not just to the past, but to the present. It was the time of Rwanda genocide. However the holocaust memorials speak not just to atrocities but to the everyday slights and discourtesies that breed permission for atrocity.
I heard that discourtesy on the flight over to Israel, in conversation with someone from the Jewish community. The person spoke contemptuously about the Palestinian people, blaming them for the lack of peace. It was doubly hard to hear in the face of Jewish history and experience. Time to check out my own behaviour and attitudes.
In See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, three internally lit fibreglass figures have the terms panic, stress, anxiety, insomnia, hysteria and amnesia inscribed on their faces. The Exhibition Guide says:
'The physicality of these words branded on the skin openly reveals conditions of the mind that are usually internal and hidden. Their posture reflects a natural method of defence, to make the body small, curling it in on itself for safety, echoing the protected position of a baby in its mother’s womb.'
No comments:
Post a Comment