Holy Land: Yad Veshem

May 24:  We spent the whole morning at the Yad Veshem, Holocaust Memorial Museum.  It was very sad to see man's inhumanity.  I spent a lot of time watching videos of survivors recounting their experiences.  The suffering of children and their separation from their parents moved me to quiet tears.  I have been to the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC and I found this one in Jerusalem more powerful maybe because I am now older and a husband and father.
 
There was also a Children's Memorial Hall for the 1.5 million children who perished.  The hall was totally black except for a single candle that got reflected by a multitude of mirrors so that you seem to see a thousand points of light from the candle throughout the dark room and you hear the continuous enumeration of children's names, their ages and locales.

In the afternoon, I returned to the Old City and had a chance to enter the Holy Sepulchre Church Edicule, which is the revered spot of the burial of Jesus.  We were fortunate because the line was short.  We had a solemn moment inside.  It was a reconstructed marble resting place.  We also entered the Coptic Chapel of St Helena where I had a longer moment of prayer.