Sixty years after the liberation of Auschwitz and the end of World War II, Yad Vashem will inaugurate its new Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem this evening.
The ultra-modern museum is more than four times the size of the current museum. Haaretz reports the opening will be witnessed by "the largest number of official visitors to Israel in its history . . . from some 40 countries." The Jerusalem Post reports that:
The state-of-the-art $56 million complex, which aims to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive in the 21st century . . . will be officially inaugurated with a solemn ceremony which will be attended by dozens of world dignitaries, including 15 heads of state and government, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Nobel Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel. . . .
The new museum, designed by internationally renowned Israeli-American architect Moshe Safdie, is a 4,200-square-meter prism-like structure that slices through the Jerusalem hilltop known as the Mount of Remembrance. . . .
The mostly underground structure, topped by a skylight, cuts through Mount Herzl, almost completely blocking out the light of the Jerusalem sun, except for a dim ray, visible all along the length of the building. Only at the museum’s exit is the sun allowed to shine in at full force.
Visitors who enter the museum are forced by its design to zigzag through a series of historical galleries in strict order, with each depicting another stage in the destruction of European Jewry. . . .
Throughout the museum, 100 screens show short films with the testimony of 60 survivors. Other displays include the original Auschwitz Album and Schindler’s lists along with hundreds of haunting pictures that line the walls.
The museum ends with the new Hall of Names, where the names of the 3 million known Jewish victims are stored, with visitors asked to add additional names at Yad Vashem’s recently inaugurated computer database system.
In the middle of the room is a pit which cuts deep into the bedrock, terminating with a pool of water which reflects the faces affixed to the dome above. The abyss represents the 3 million Jewish victims whose names remain unknown.
The exit emerges dramatically out of the mountainside, the light suddenly once again in full force, affording a panoramic view of Jerusalem.
Haaretz has a story about the "Long Road to the New Museum" that highlights the influence of the United States and the Jewish Diaspora on the expanded museum in Israel. Worth reading in its entirety.