tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27072566.post190093250622715168..comments2024-03-14T03:16:23.482-05:00Comments on Everyone Needs Therapy: Yad Vashemtherapydochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05088184676439578876noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27072566.post-91902608492341698152010-01-12T15:17:45.505-06:002010-01-12T15:17:45.505-06:00Thanks so much. We have it here, too. Just last ...Thanks so much. We have it here, too. Just last week FD went to play basketball at the Jewish Community Center and the streets were blocked off-- bomb scare.therapydochttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05088184676439578876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27072566.post-42003059752819408752010-01-12T15:04:06.814-06:002010-01-12T15:04:06.814-06:00i was in yad vashem a year ago, 40 years since my ...i was in yad vashem a year ago, 40 years since my first time there - these testaments are an obligation that must be passed down from generation to generation <br /><br />i live in london - sixty years since the end of WWII has been a long time for the jews outside of israel to live in relative peace, but antisemitism has not lain dormant in europe all these years, it has simmered beneath the surface and can erupt at any time again - we cannot be complacent - we cannot forget - i for one am afraid, very afraid<br /><br />brooke's comment saddens me - did she not visit sderot where israeli children only know life in an air-raid shelter - where rockets have been launched against them for years on a daily basis - did she know that when gush katif was handed back to the palestinians it was razed to the ground and turned into a rocket launch pad<br /><br />the palestinians are not victims of the israelis, they are the victims of hamas who use and abuse them - they are scapegoats --- more palestinians were slaughtered in gaza at the hands of hamas than by israelannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10520900940014508061noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27072566.post-68000811575937217692009-05-17T06:54:00.000-05:002009-05-17T06:54:00.000-05:00Thanks so much for reading and for taking the time...Thanks so much for reading and for taking the time to write this, Brook. <br /><br />But I have to ask, Did you ever SEE an Israeli shoot at an innocent child on his way to school?<br /><br />I've been in similar situations, and never have. Some of us feel that the Arab world has done a much better public relations job on what goes on between the Palestinians and the Israelis, than the Jews.<br /><br />Which is a really sad thing and is divisive and leads to hate.therapydochttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05088184676439578876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27072566.post-72782803630087999132009-05-17T01:46:00.000-05:002009-05-17T01:46:00.000-05:00i'm obviously late to this.. but i just discovered...i'm obviously late to this.. but i just discovered your blog..<br /><br />i've been to yad vashem myself - last year when i visited palestine / israel. i've also read about the holocaust all my life, and in many ways i consider myself a zionist.. i believe the jews should have a homeland.<br /><br />just after i went to yad vashem i went on a tour of east jerusalem, and got to hear about the conditions for the palestinians there, and i visited the wall, and i stayed in homes of palestinians in the west bank who's land has been taken by settlers, and heard stories about young school children who are afraid to go to sleep because the next day they have to walk by illegal israeli settlers who attack them on the way to school in the south hebron hills.<br /><br />throughout all my years of reading about the holocaust i read "never again" and i agreed.. yes, never again. but it is happening in gaza, it is happening in the west bank. the land that yad vashem was built on was a palestinian village that was wiped off the map. never again- yet israel is doing it now.<br /><br />i find it very sad that what people learn from oppressors is not how NOT to be, instead, how to oppress. this is what i witnessed in the land where christ walked (i am a protestant, of the liberal kind), where the israelites were lead to escape slavery in egypt. the land of palestine and israel is sacred, holy land - and yet is also one full of sadness, anger, and a 61 year al-nakba. yes, very sad.brookehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12252293767943598801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27072566.post-54573366353676178762007-11-13T00:50:00.000-06:002007-11-13T00:50:00.000-06:00Having made the pilgrimage to Auschwitz-Birkenau i...Having made the pilgrimage to Auschwitz-Birkenau itself, I no longer question the legitimacy of these memorial/museum experiences. There is a thing about paying witness to the physical objects, the dreadful remnants of the experience, that is important and difficult to replace with reading accounts or watching images (although I am glad we have those to aid us in remembering, and had been exposed to much of it before our journey to Poland).<BR/><BR/>This is not to take away the importance of all kinds of other thoughtful reflection on all kinds of other atrocities. There is no worse; it is not a competition.<BR/><BR/>The importance, as many in this thread have intimated, is to keep the connection alive. To remember that not only did this happen, but that it can happen again.<BR/><BR/>Heaven forfend.the communicatrixhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15261608424565258366noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27072566.post-75234276004578226342007-10-07T22:21:00.000-05:002007-10-07T22:21:00.000-05:00Thanks, RBACH. The Museum of Tolerance in LA was ...Thanks, RBACH. The Museum of Tolerance in LA was my first holocaust museum experience, and I'll bet it's even more intense now. That was many years ago.therapydochttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05088184676439578876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27072566.post-4634720971546245982007-10-07T22:03:00.000-05:002007-10-07T22:03:00.000-05:00Thanks for your post. I tend to agree with your p...Thanks for your post. <BR/><BR/>I tend to agree with your perspective on the impact of visiting a Holocaust museum. Growing up Jewish in Southern California, I got all the positives: tradition, holidays, fantastic food, but the history seemed distant.<BR/><BR/>Visiting the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles was a blow to the gut. All the things I had read and seen on screen paled in comparison, and I think that emotional empathy was key to really understanding what happened (and what could happen again).Rob at Kintropyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15999010879403689746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27072566.post-7480634504861121092007-08-21T21:29:00.000-05:002007-08-21T21:29:00.000-05:00Therapydoc, thanks for the reminder. We should no...Therapydoc, thanks for the reminder. We should not forget.Patricia Singletonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14114250171020836470noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27072566.post-10158644223874737772007-08-15T13:27:00.000-05:002007-08-15T13:27:00.000-05:00I think that if anything, Holocaust museums should...I think that if anything, Holocaust museums should be more emotionally charged. We are at a point in history when Holocaust survivors are becoming rare. I personally cannot believe the Holocaust could have happened, but I have spoken to survivors and children of survivors, so even though I cannot believe it, I know it happened. <BR/><BR/>What happens when kids grow up not being able to believe it, and then they only read dry history books about it? At best, why will they care to read about it? at worst, why will they believe it actually happened? <BR/><BR/>BTW, The Wave was excellent. I showed it for a class presentation recently. It is a little dated... but interesting, and proves an important point.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27072566.post-9030164731620068232007-08-14T18:08:00.000-05:002007-08-14T18:08:00.000-05:00Thanks, MSB.Thanks, MSB.therapydochttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05088184676439578876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27072566.post-8834725963816828852007-08-14T17:38:00.000-05:002007-08-14T17:38:00.000-05:00Thank you for this post. I went to the Holocaust ...Thank you for this post. I went to the Holocaust Museum in DC some years ago and found it very powerful. At some point I found tears running down my face. I think of the saying about never forgetting the past least we repeat it. I don't see anything in a world chalk full of unbelievable atrocities that holds a candle to the crimes so blatantly committed to such a large group of people during WWll.msbhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15404480595836607906noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27072566.post-40391713562054094942007-08-14T11:46:00.000-05:002007-08-14T11:46:00.000-05:00Midwife: You're right, too. I think I said that ...Midwife: You're right, too. <BR/><BR/>I think I said that if a person suffers from depression that visiting a Holocaust museum isn't a good idea. Same goes for some folks who suffer from secondary trauma. <BR/><BR/>Understand. For me it's the incredulity of what happened in the Shoah (<EM>destruction</EM> during those years), the fact that it was so extraordinary, so dehumanizing, so racist, that makes me say (and I'm not alone), <BR/><BR/>Never again. <BR/><BR/>There is an increase in anti-Jewish feeling internationally in our times. There are many people who really feel that actually. . . This CAN happen again. <BR/><BR/>So if I say, people should go, should <EM>sensitize</EM> themselves to this vulgar potentiality, it is because had anyone suggested that it could happen prior to 1939, no one, absolutely no one, would have taken him seriously.<BR/><BR/>So I take it seriously, feel it should be known. And SEEING is believing.therapydochttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05088184676439578876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27072566.post-16368870032281957432007-08-14T10:33:00.000-05:002007-08-14T10:33:00.000-05:00Shalva, sorry if it came across as me criticizing ...Shalva, sorry if it came across as me criticizing your language. I couldn't tell, honestly, if you meant that I personally should be taking on the atrocities at Guantanamo Bay. <BR/><BR/>There are MANY horrific causes that I could discuss on the blog, and surely Guantanamo is one example of unjust incarceration, terror, trauma, abuse, and gross injustice and violation of human rights. <BR/><BR/>I chose to talk about the Holocaust and didn't feel (when I wrote my glib response to you) that one thing took away from the other or that one was more important than the other. <BR/><BR/>I appreciate that you brought up Guantanamo. Of course we should be writing to our Congresspeople and demanding that something be done. I agree with you one hundred percent.therapydochttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05088184676439578876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27072566.post-59397808764450787372007-08-14T09:59:00.000-05:002007-08-14T09:59:00.000-05:00thanks for this, therapydoc. as someone who grew ...thanks for this, therapydoc. <BR/><BR/>as someone who grew up in post-WWII germany, the holocaust is in the forefront of my awareness all the time. too much for my own good, probably - but that's another story.<BR/><BR/>what i found interesting is making the connection between the "downer" of the pictorial aspects of the holocaust and your friend's difficulties in raising money for rape victims.<BR/><BR/>it looks like the news is the only (highly stylized) framework within which most people allow themselves to look at the bad things that happen to people. i was going to say, "within which they allow themselves to look at suffering" but that isn't correct. <BR/><BR/>we do NOT want to look at suffering in whatever context.isabella morihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01150933640442379951noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27072566.post-66912838414118440412007-08-14T09:01:00.000-05:002007-08-14T09:01:00.000-05:00I actually disagree also. I think that everybody ...I actually disagree also. I think that everybody should be taught about the Holocaust, and I certainly think that these museums have their place, but I really don't think that everybody needs to go to one. I see more than enough of the direct results of violence, abuse, rape, and other sorts of inhumanity in my work to give me nightmares. <BR/><BR/>I certainly do not need that kind of object lesson to know that we should not let genocide and torture occur, whether it's in Nazi Germany in the 1930's-40's or in the Sudan in the 2000's.<BR/><BR/>I think that most people can honor the suffering of Holocaust victims of all kinds without actually exposing themselves to such violent imagery.<BR/><BR/>Again, I certainly think that these kinds of museums/memorials have their place, and that they definately should exist, but I also don't think that they're for everybody.Midwife with a Knifehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04309579302399381913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27072566.post-17994122567756011582007-08-14T08:59:00.000-05:002007-08-14T08:59:00.000-05:00Your post said "you HAVE to", "it's your responsib...Your post said "you HAVE to", "it's your responsibility" etc. Not "one HAS to" "it's one's responsibility". Of course, you can disagree with my assessment, just as I can disagree with yours, but I don't think you can justly criticise my language.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27072566.post-7187471901100519722007-08-14T05:49:00.000-05:002007-08-14T05:49:00.000-05:00I'm guessing you mean, one's time, surely one's ca...I'm guessing you mean, <EM>one's time</EM>, surely one's call.therapydochttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05088184676439578876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27072566.post-14237771497003597372007-08-14T03:59:00.000-05:002007-08-14T03:59:00.000-05:00I wonder. I disagree with you about there being a ...I wonder. I disagree with you about there being a responsibility to allow the emotional manipulation of these places. Indeed, I feel there may be a sinister connection between holocaust entertainment and the soldier's injunction to kill more often so as to get used to seeing dead bodies. Some things SHOULD be unimaginable, and practising imagining them is not responsible. IMHO.<BR/><BR/>What's important is to know that individuals matter, and to stand up for fairness and liberty. Wouldn't your time have been better spent writing letters to help get Guantanamo Bay closed down, for example?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com