Holocaust and Heroism in the Process of Establishing Yad Vashem (1942–1970)

Abstract

The article examines the transformation in Yad Vashem’s institutional conception with regard to commemoration of the Holocaust and the heroism from the 1940s up until the early 1970s. From the inception of Yad Vashem prior to the founding of the state, the heads of the institution grappled with the question of its physical appearance and its symbolic significance. The need to plan and construct a site of memory forced them to confront weighty issues pertaining to their conception of Holocaust memory and to disentangle the connection and relation between Holocaust and heroism and between victims and heroes. Yad Vashem’s leadership wondered what was meant by the ‘name and memory’ that appears in the Yad Vashem Law, as did the group of architects who planned the complex, deliberating how they should design the place so that it would serve as a site of memory and inspiration for future generations. What kind of monuments should they erect that would be symbolically compatible with the objectives of the institution as defined in 1953? Should commemoration of those who fought the Nazis and the other heroes be presented separately from remembrance of the murdered, or should the two functions be united? The discussion focuses on the debates among the institution’s management regarding the appearance of the remembrance site and addresses the question of why and how the original idea of erecting two main sites of remembrance at Yad Vashem – the Holocaust Hall, dedicated to the annihilation of the Jews and, opposite it, the Hall of Heroism to commemorate the Jewish combatants – was replaced by the Ohel Yizkor (Hall of Remembrance). This building contains nothing expressing Jewish heroism, which had featured so prominently in the original plans for Yad Vashem.