Sunday, February 17, 2008

Children are children

Children are children

This morning we went to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial and museum in Jerusalem.

This was my first visit to this beautiful place since I've been a mother...in each photograph of those beautiful little children who died much too soon I saw my own children.

I saw the work passes for the children of the Lodz ghetto and I tried to imagine putting my children to work to save their lives.

I looked at the photos of the mothers holding their babies walking into the gas chambers and I felt my own children in my arms.

And I saw the eyes of the young soldier-girls who stood in the museum with us. Their strength and power contrasted so strongly with the helplessness of the ghetto children, I wanted to reach out and pull each of these strong young women into my arms and kiss their heads.

I watched the young teenagers from the Chicago area who were also here with us and I saw my own children visiting Israel and seeing these horrors. And i looked at these bright shiny American teenagers with their lifeforce so strong...against the grainy black and white of the dead...

And I know...I KNOW that these young people....MY children...are the ones who will ensure NEVER AGAIN.

3 comments:

Susan Helene Gottfried said...

From your lips to God's ears, Phyllis.

But don't forget, we're not done doing our part yet, either. It's not entirely up to the kids. We still need to show them the way.

Keep being safe in your travels.

Mandy said...

I'm sitting here bawling....I can't even imagine the horror they must have felt.

Peggie said...

I want to thank you for sharing your trip with us. I am reading it every day and enjoying it. You are a blessing to me.