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

* Translated from Hebrew by Avner Greenberg

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.

Keywords:

• commemoration
• Holocaust commemoration
• Yad Vashem
• historical-geography
• Israel studies

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank Prof. Yehoshua Ben Arieh, Dr Boaz Cohen, Dr Kobi Cohen-Hatav, Prof. Guy Meron, Prof. Rehav (Buni) Rubin and Dr Oryan Shahar for reading this article and for their useful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

* Translated from Hebrew by Avner Greenberg

1 The Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance (Yad Vashem) Law 5713-1953, The Statute Book, no. 132, 8 Elul 5713, Aug. 19, 1953, paragraph 2.

2 Yael Zerubavel, “Bein ‘historia’ le-‘agada’: gilgulei tel-hai be-zikaron ha-amami,” in David Ohanah and Robert S. Wistrich, (eds.), Mitos ve-Zikaron: Gilguleiha shel ha-Toda’ah ha-Yisraelit (Jerusalem and Tel Aviv: The Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem and Ha-kibbutz Ha-Me’uhad, 1997), pp. 189–202.

3 Thomas Carlyle, On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History (London: Chapman and Hall, 1852).‏

4 Yehudit Tidor-Baumel, Giborim le-Mofet: Tsanhanei ha-Yishuv be-Milhemet ha-Olam ha-Shniya ve-Itsuv ha-Zikaron ha-Qoleqtivi ha-Yisraeli (Sde Boqer: The Ben-Gurion Institute for the Study of Israel, 2004), pp. 7–8.

5 On the conception of heroism during the Holocaust, see Ronnie Stauber, Ha-Lekah la-Dor: Shoah ve-Gevura be-Mahshava ha-Tsiburit ba-Arets be-Shenot ha-Hamishim (Jerusalem: Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi, 2000); Mooli Brog, “Victims and Victors: Holocaust and Military Commemoration in Israel Collective Memory,” Israel Studies 8:3 (2003), pp. 65–99.‏

6 Anita Shapira, “Ha-shoah: zikaron prati ve-zikaron tsiburi,” Zemanim 57 (1997), pp. 4–13; Naima Barzel, “Tefisat ha-gevura be-shoah: bein zikaron leumi qoleqtivi le-zikaron leumi mufrat,” Dapim le-Heqer ha-Shoah 16 (2001), pp. 86–124.

7 Minutes of meeting of the Yad Vashem executive committee, Jan. 3, 1967 (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1967); Minutes of meeting of the Yad Vashem executive committee, Jan. 26, 1968 (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1968).

8 Mooli Brog, “‘Zekher halom le-vrakha’: Mordechai Shenhavi ve-ra’ayonot ha-hantsaha ha-rishonim shel ha-shoah be-erets-yisrael, 1942–1945,” Yad Vashem Studies 30 (2002), pp. 241–269; Mooli Brog, “Yad le-hayalim ve-shem le-halalim: nisyonot ha-va’ad ha-leumi laqim et ‘yad vashem’ 1946-1949,” Qathedra 119 (2006), pp. 87–120, in which he discusses the establishment of Yad Vashem during the mandate period, but hardly addresses the spatial aspects of the subject. On the founding of Yad Vashem after 1953, see Mooli Brog, “‘Even mi-qir tizak’: Ha-hantsaha ha-monumentalit shel ha-shoah be-nof yisrael,’ Masoah 33 (2006), pp. 93–109; Eran Neumann, “Nofei shoah monumentali’im be-‘yad vashem’,” Dapim le-Heqer ha-Shoah 21 (2007), pp. 35–54.

9 For a summary of the complex and lengthy evolution of the physical commemoration of the Holocaust in various locations worldwide, see James E. Young, The Texture of Memory: Holocaust Memorials and Meaning (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994).‏

10 For a discussion of monumentalism in Palestine during the mandate period, see Daniel Bertrand Monk, An Aesthetic Occupation: The Immediacy of Architecture and the Palestine Conflict (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2002).‏

11 Thus, only 5 of the 275 pages of Abba Elhanani’s Ha-Ma’avaq le-Atsma’ut shel ha-Adrikhalut ha-Yisra’elit be-Meiah ha-20 (Tel Aviv: Ministry of Defense Publications, 1998) are devoted to ‘structure of memory.’ Only a few of the projects mentioned in this chapter of the book were built during the years that I discuss here. Zvi Efrat’s comprehensive work, Ha-Proyeqt ha-Yisra’eli: Beniya ve-Adrikhalut, 1948–1973 (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 2004), contains fewer than 30 pages that deal with the architecture of memory, most of which address monuments to the fallen.

12 Yael Zerubavel, “The Death of Memory and the Memory of Death: Masada and the Holocaust as Historical Metaphors,” Representations 45 (1994), pp. 72–100; Eliezer Don-Yehiya, “Memory and Political Culture: Israeli Society and The Holocaust,” Studies in Contemporary Jewry 9 (1993), pp. 139–162; Don Handelman and Lea Shamgar-Handelman, “The Presence of Absence: The Memorialism of National Death in Israel,” in Eyal Ben-Ari and Yoram Bilu, (eds.), Grasping Land: Space and Place in Contemporary Israeli Discourse and Experience (Albany: SUNY Press, 1997), pp. 85–128. For an analysis of contemporary political positions in Israel, see Yehiam Weitz, “Be-heqsher politi: ha-meimad ha-politi shel zikaron ha-shoah be-shenot ha-hamishim,” Iyunim be-Tequmat Yisra’el 6 (1996), pp. 271–287.

13 Deliberation over commemoration of the Holocaust, not merely in material terms, but also by means of ceremonies and congresses, books, and prayer has characterized Israeli society ever since the end of World War II. On this issue during the 1950s and 1960s, see Yehudit Baumel Tidor, “‘Le-zikaron olam’: hantsahat ha-shoah be-yedei ha-prat ve-ha-qehila be-medinat yisra’el,” Iyunim be-Tequmat Yisra’el, 5 (1995): pp. 364–387; Dalia Ofer, “Ma ve-ad kama lizkor min ha-shoah: zikaron ha-shoah be-medinat yisra’el be-asor ha-rishon le-qiuma,” in Anita Shapira, (ed.), Atsma’ut – 50 ha-Shanim ha-Rishonot (Jerusalem: Zalman Shazar Center, 1998), pp. 171–193; Yehiam Weitz, “Itsuv zikaron ha-shoah be-hevra ha-yisra’elit be-shenot ha-hamishim,” in Yisrael Gutman, (ed.), Temurot Yesod be-Am ha-Yehudi be-Iqvot ha-Shoah (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1996), pp. 473–494; Maoz Azaryahu, “Hidush ve-hemshekhiut: ha-masoret ha-yehudit ve-itsuvam shel pulhanei ha-ribonut be-yisra’el,” in Mordechai Bar-On and Zvi Tsameret, (eds.), Shnei Evrei ha-Gesher: Dat u-Medina be-Reishit Darka shel Yisra’el (Jerusalem: Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi, 2002), pp. 273–294; Boaz Cohen, Ha-Dorot ha-Ba’im – Eikha Yaidu? Leidato ve-Hithalfuto shel Heqer ha-Shoah ha-Yisra’eli (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2011).

14 Ever since 1942, when the idea of erecting a site of remembrance of the Holocaust in Palestine was first floated, proposals were submitted to build it in the north of the Hula Valley, in the western Jezreel Valley, at Ma’aleh Ha-Hamisha, on Mount Scopus, and at Ramat Rachel. In the late 1940s, following the founding of the state, it was proposed that Yad Vashem be established in western Jerusalem. For discussion of these plans, see Mooli Brog, “Nof Zikaron ve-Zehut Le’umit: Hantsahat ha-Shoah be-Yad Vashem 1942–1996”, PhD diss., The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 2006; Eran Neuman, Shoah Presence: Architectural Representations of the Holocaust (Surrey: Ashgate, 2014).‏

15 Doron Bar, “Bein martef ha-shaoh le-yad vashem: efer qedoshim ke-moqed qedusha,” Yad Vashem Studies 38:1 (2010), pp. 159–182.

16 For Shenhavi’s curriculum vitae, see David Zayit, Ha-Halom veha-Magshim: Pirqei Hayav shel Mordechai Shenhavi I (Givat Haviva: Yad Ya’ari, 2006); part two was written by Yizhar Ben Nahum, Ha-Halom veha-Magshim: Pirqei Hayav shel Mordechai Shenhavi II (Givat Haviva: Yad Ya’ari, 2011). For more on this chapter in the annals of Yad Vashem, see Brog, “Zekher halom le-vrakha.”

17 Mordechai Shenhavi, “Outlines for a National Undertaking,” Sept. 10, 1942, Yad Vashem Archives (YVA), AM.1 287. [Note: All the archived documents referenced here are written in Hebrew.]

18 Ibid. Reports of what was happening in Europe began to reach Palestine and appear in the press in the latter half of 1942. See Dina Porat, Hanhaga be-Milkud: ha-Yishuv Nokhah ha-Shoah, 1942–1945 (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1986), pp. 59–67. At the end of June of that year, the daily Davar, for example, reported on the announcement made by the spokesman of the World Jewish Congress revealing that the Nazis had murdered at least a million Jews in Europe, half of them in Poland. See “Eimah!” Davar, June 30, 1942, p. 1. Shenhavi subsequently recalled how a ‘spiritual vision’ that he experienced in 1942 had led him to take action to build a memorial to those who perished. See Mordechai Shenhavi, “Summing up 12 years of Yad Vashem,” undated, Ha-Shomer Ha-Tsa’ir Archive (STA), 95-3.2 (6).

19 Mordechai Shenhavi, “Proposal,” Jan. 18, 1943, STA, 95-14.3 (2).

20 Ibid.

21 Monio Weinraub, who was personally acquainted with Shenhavi, was the first architect to engage in planning Yad Vashem. Later into the 1940s, his partner Al Mansfeld joined Weinraub on the project, followed by Arieh Sharon and Arieh Elhanani in 1947. Binyamin Idelson, Sharon’s partner, was the last to join the Yad Vashem planning team, in 1954.

22 Illustrations drawn on greaseproof paper, bearing no title or name, but only the year 1943, STA, 95-3.7 (3).

23 See, for example, P. Lain, Comments on Mr. Shenhavi’s proposal for erecting a national park, March 30, 1943, STA, 95-3.14 (1).

24 Letter from Shenhavi to Avraham Garnowski, March 10, 1943, STA, 95-3.14 (2); Minutes of a meeting held at the JNF’s central bureau, April 1, 1943, STA, 95-3.14 (2).

25 In February 1945, for example, Baruch Zuckermann and Ya’akov Hellman submitted their proposal to build ‘a monument to the memory of our martyrs and pure of heart’ on Mount Carmel. See Baruch Zuckermann, “Le-zikhron olam,” Yiddish manuscript, Feb. 1945, Mishmar Ha-Emeq Archive (MHA), S-29, 1. For a Hebrew translation of the manuscript, see Baruch Zuckermann, “Ha-Ideah shel ‘yad vashem,’” Gesher IV:B (Tamuz 5718), pp. 70–79.

26 Mordechai Shenhavi, “The People’s Monument to the Memory of the Fallen of the Diaspora, and a Memorial to the Jewish Soldier,” Dec. 7, 1944, CZA, KKL5/1292.

27 Stauber, Ha-Lekah la-dor, pp. 37–47. See also the detailed documentation of the decision-making process with regard to Yad Vashem: Mordechai Shenhavi, “The national project of commemoration of the destroyed Diaspora, the negotiations and the discussions on it,” Aug. 1946, STA, 95-3.14 (6).

28 “Yad vashem la-gola ha-nehrevet: kavim le-tokhnit,” Davar, May 25, 1945, p. 3.

29 Mordechai Shenhavi, “‘Yad vashem’ for the destroyed Diaspora,” July 22, 1945, CZA, J1-3610; for a slightly later version from Dec. 22, 1945, see CZA, S53-167.

30 Resolutions of the World Zionist Congress in London, Aug. 1945, Ch. 3, Resolution 13, CZA, S5/111351; Yad Vashem, the London meeting, Aug. 15, 1945, STA, 95-3.14 (6). On this chapter in the annals of Yad Vashem, see Brog, “Yad le-hayalim.”

31 Monio Weinraub and Al Mansfeld, “Yad Vashem,” a diagramic drawing of the project, 1:5000, May 1946, STA, 95-3.7 (1); Weinraub and Mansfeld, “Yad Vashem,” general view of the project, May 1946, STA, 95-3.7 (1).

32 Minutes of the meeting of the National Council executive committee, May 6, 1946, CZA, J1-6442.

33 Ibid.; Brog, “Yad le-hayalim.”

34 Address by B. Zuckermann at a meeting with representatives of organizations of Polish Jews in Tel Aviv, July 16, 1946, YVA, AM.1 36. Yad Vashem intended to create a ‘monopoly’ of sorts with regard to the physical commemoration of the Holocaust, by, among other means, selling and sending copies of the monument, whose stones would be cut at Yad Vashem. See Mordechai Shenhavi, “Proposal for consideration pertaining to the memorial,” Feb. 15, 1947, STA, 95-3.14 (6). On the cutting of stones on site, see ‘Executive meetings,’ Feb. 20, 1947, CZA, J1-6442.

35 “Meeting on the Matter of Yad Vashem,” Nov. 11, 1946, CZA, J1-6442/1.

36 Memorandum of a meeting with Tahon, discussion of matters pertaining to the land, submitted by Shenhavi, May 15, 1946, STA, 95-3.15 (3).

37 Meeting between Shenhavi and Weitz (on the matter of purchasing the land), June 27, 1946, STA, 95-3.14 (6).

38 Weinraub and Mansfeld, “Yad Vashem,” a diagrammatic drawing of the project 1:5000, May 1946, in a Kodak box, plate, MHA, S-29, 4.

39 Memorandum to members of the directorate, May 29, 1947, CZA, KH4/3/3939; “Meeting of the ‘Yad Vashem’ committee of the JNF directorate,” April 1, 1947, STA, 95-3.14 (2).

40 Mordechai Shenhavi, Premises and numbers for consideration of the Yad Vashem plan, Feb. 16, 1947, MHA, S-29, 1.

41 Premises and proposals for discussion at a meeting of the executive, Feb. 20, 1947, YVA, AM.1 287.

42 Memorandum of a meeting with the soldiers’ association, April 23, 1947, CZA, J1/6442.

43 Addresses at the World Conference for Research of the Holocaust and Heroism of Our Time convened by Yad Vashem and the Institute of Jewish Studies of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (1947), (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1948), p. 5 [Hebrew].

44 Minutes of the decisions of the JNF directorate, April 29, 1947, STA, 95-3.14 (2).

45 Abba Kovner, “Har ha-zikaron – har hatra’ah,” Mishmar, July 25, 1947, p. 5.

46 “Yad Vashem,” Haaretz, June 26, 1947.

47 Minutes of a meeting on issues regarding Yad Vashem, June 10, 1947, CZA, S5/111351.

48 A proposal submitted in February 1948 for a suitable location for the Yad Vashem enterprise noted the advantages presented by this area: ‘Its dimensions facilitate free and unhindered planning of all the architectural elements of Yad Vashem integrated with nature to form an independent architectural whole.’ See “Opinion on the Appropriate Area for the Yad Vashem Enterprise,” Tel Aviv, Feb. 1948, YVA, AM.1 27.

49 These architects had previously worked closely with one another. Mansfeld, for example, had worked on the planning of Ganei Ha-Ta’arukha in north Tel Aviv under Elhanani.

50 Letter from Weinraub to Shenhavi, June 27, 1947, STA 95-15.3 (7).

51 The precise location of the site adjacent to Ramat Rachel is unknown to me, and I rely here on a fragment of greaseproof paper kept among Shenhavi’s documents in the Ya’ari Memorial Archive. This is a transparent piece of paper on which lines and coordinates appear as well as a polygon defining an enclosed area. “Sheet Index 4+6” is written on the sheet, along with a stamp of the date Dec. 25, 1947. See STA 95-15.3 (7). We may deduce from these details that the area considered for the construction of Yad Vashem was Jabel Abu-Ganim, on which the Har Homa neighborhood was built many years later.

52 “Yad Vashem,” an isometric drawing in color, STA, 95-3.7 (1); “Yad Vashem,” 1:500, a folded plan on paper, STA, 95-3.7 (1); “Yad Vashem,” 1:500, late 1947 or early 1948, STA, 95-3.7 (1).

53 Letter from Tratkover to David Remez, Oct. 17, 1949, STA, 95-3.15 (6); Letter from D. Baharal to Y. A. Nebenzahl, March 9, 1949, CZA, S21/301.

54 On the Paris center, see Laura Jockusch, “Breaking the Silence: The Centre de documentation juive contemporaine in Paris and the Writing of Holocaust History in Liberated France,” in David Cesarani and Eric J. Sundquist, (eds.), After the Holocaust: Challenging the Myth of Silence (Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2012), pp. 67–81.‏

55 Draft of a letter from Shenhavi to the military governor of Jerusalem, “Allocation of Land to the Yad Vashem Enterprise,” undated, STA, 95-3.15 (7).

56 Letter from Shenhavi to Granot, receipt stamped on Aug. 1, 1950, CZA, KKL5/17418.

57 I have been unable to discover who first suggested that the enterprise be built there. In any event, the proposal won the support of the planning administration, the JNF’s central bureau, and Shenhavi. See letter from S. Tsemah to M. Shenhavi, March 16, 1949, YVA, AM.1 138; letter from Shenhavi to the planning administration, “Establishment of a Military Cemetery on the Site of ‘Yad Vashem,’” March 20, 1949, YVA, AM.1 138. On the decision to bury Herzl there and on the development of Mount Herzl, see Doron Bar, Landscape and Ideology: Reinterment of Renowned Jews in the Land of Israel 1904–1967 (Berlin: De Groyter, 2016), pp. 21–46.

58 Minutes of meeting of the Yad Vashem executive committee, “Opinions Expressed by Participants in the Meeting Regarding the Proposal to Confer Citizenship on the Victims of the Nazis,” Aug. 10, 1950, MHA, S-29, 3.

59 On Dinur’s attitude toward the Holocaust prior to the founding of the state, see Tsvi Tsameret, “Bein palestinotsentriut le-yudotsentriut: Ben-Zion Dinburg (Dinur) ve-sho’at yehudei europa,” in Dina Porat and Aviva Halamish, (eds.), Shoa mi-Merhaq Tavo: Ishim be-Yishuv ha-Erets-Yisra’eli ve-Yahasam le-Natsism ule-Shoah 1933–1948 (Jerusalem: Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi, 2009), pp. 263–296. For a later biography on him and his attitude toward Yad Vashem, see David Engel, Mul Har Ha-Ga’ash: Hoqrei Toldot Yisra’el le-Nokhah ha-Shoah, (Jerusalem: Zalman Shazar Center, 2010), pp. 108–156, particularly pp. 147–156; Cohen, Ha-Dorot ha-Ba’im, pp. 71–85.

60 On the composition of Yad Vashem’s executive committee, see “Hitargenuta u-fe’uloteha shel reshut ha-zikaron ‘yad vashem,’” Yad Vashem News I (1954), p. 15.

61 Minutes of meeting of the Remembrance Authority’s executive committee, Dec. 2, 1953, CZA, S115/510.

62 Report on a meeting of the Remembrance Authority, June 28, 1953, CZA, S5/111351; minutes of meeting of the Remembrance Authority, July 16, 1953, CZA, KKL5/19144.

63 “The Yad Vashem Remembrance Authority’s Five-Year Budgetary Outline,” Aug. 20, 1953, Israel State Archives (ISA), GL-1229/1.

64 Letter from Elhanani to Shenhavi, March 10, 1954, ISA, G-33/2204.

65 “The Planning Elements for the ‘Yad Vashem’ Enterprise,” Nov. 17, 1954, CZA, S115/506.

66 Letter from Shenhavi to Weinraub and M. Wiener, “Modes of Commemoration,” Nov. 29, 1954, STA, 95-3.15 (6).

67 Letter from Mark Yuviler to Dinur, Oct. 30, 1954, ISA, HZ-151/3. On the Claims Conference’s involvement in the running of Yad Vashem, see Ronald W. Zweig, “Politics of Commemoration,” Jewish Social Studies 44:2 (1987), pp. 155–166.

68 Yuviler to Dinur, Oct. 30, 1954. See also Stauber, Ha-Leqah la-Dor, pp. 159–170.

69 “Yad Vashem,” Aug. 1954, STA, 95.3.7 (1); photographs of a model for Yad Vashem, undated, STA, 95-3.7 (1).

70 Minutes of meeting of the expanded executive committee at the Yad Vashem office, Jan. 11, 1955, CZA, S115/512.

71 Ibid. On the issue of building a synagogue at Yad Vashem, see Doron Bar, “A House of Worship or a Holocaust and Heroism Memorial? The Synagogue at the Historical Yad Vashem, 1945–1964,” Yad Vashem Studies 43:1 (2015), pp. 171–209.

72 Minutes of meeting of the Yad Vashem executive committee, Jan. 11, 1955, CZA, S115/506.

73 Letter from Mark Yuviler to B. Dinur, “The ‘Martyrs’ Hall’ Building, Which Will Include the Synagogue Building,” Aug. 19, 1955, STA, 95-3.17 (2).

74 Minutes of meeting of the construction committee, Sept. 4, 1955, STA, 95-3.17 (2).

75 Minutes of meeting of the Yad Vashem executive committee, April 13, 1956 (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1956).

76 Minutes of meeting of the Yad Vashem executive committee, Feb. 1, 1956, ISA, P-2/1976.

77 Summary of decisions from the meeting of Yad Vashem’s First World Council, April 19, 1956, CZA, KKL5/22479.

78 Decisions made at a meeting of the Yad Vashem executive committee, May 29, 1956, CZA, S80/3441.

79 Minutes of a symposium assembled by Yad Vashem’s executive committee on June 10, 1956, STA, 95-3.17 (2).

80 Ibid.

81 Ibid.

82 Ibid.

83 Ibid.

84 Minutes of a symposium assembled by Yad Vashem’s executive committee on July 15, 1956, STA, 95-3.17 (2).

85 Ibid.

86 Ibid.

87 Prior to the convening of the symposium, the terms ‘heikhal hazaq’ (strong hall), ‘heikhal yizkor’ (remembrance hall), ‘heikhal ha-gevura’ (heroism hall), and ‘heikhal ha-lohamim’ (combatants’ hall) were commonly used. Once it was decided to combine commemoration of the Holocaust and the heroism in the same structure, the term ‘heikhal yizkor’ continued to be used, but during the discussions Dinur referred to this building as ‘ohel yizkor’ (remembrance tent), a term that alluded to Jewish history and to the period when the people of Israel wandered in the desert. ‘I am glad that the expression “heikhal yizkor” has meanwhile fallen into disuse, because the term tent is more appropriate for this purpose,’ said Elhanani at Yad Vashem’s Fourth World Council. See minutes of the third session of Yad Vashem’s Fourth World Council, Nov. 9, 1958, CZA, S61/326. He was expressing a prevalent opinion that held that the term “heikhal” belonged to the world of idolatry and Christianity and had no Jewish roots.

88 Summary of the two symposia assembled by Yad Vashem’s executive committee, STA, 95-3.17 (2); decisions made at a meeting of Yad Vashem’s executive committee, Aug. 7, 1956, CZA, S23/1014.

89 Letter from the five architects to Yad Vashem’s executive committee, Dec. 23, 1956, CZA, S115/537.

90 Minutes of meeting of the Third World Council held on Aug. 26, 1957, CZA, KKL/22482.

91 Minutes of meeting of the Fourth World Council, June 17, 1958, CZA, S115/243.

92 See, for example, a group of Yad Vashem devotees ‘to members of the Yad Vashem council gathering on June 17, 1958,’ CZA, S115/24.

93 In June 1958, for example, the Association of Disabled Veterans of the Fight Against the Nazis held a sit-down strike on the Mount of Remembrance. They asserted that the executive committee was deliberately excluding heroism from Yad Vashem. See letter from Y. Malkman to A. Hermann, June 8, 1958, CZA, S32/1017.

94 Letter from Bauminger to Yuviler, Jan. 23, 1957, Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People (CAHJP), CC 18563.

95 Decisions made at a meeting of Yad Vashem’s executive committee, April 29, 1958, CZA, KKL5/24136.

96 Decisions made at a meeting of Yad Vashem’s executive committee, Oct. 21, 1958, STA, 95-3.19 (1).

97 Minutes of the third session of Yad Vashem’s Fourth World Council, Nov. 9, 1958, CZA, S61/326.

98 Ibid.

99 Ibid.

100 Ibid.

101 Ibid.

102 Minutes of meeting of the construction committee, Dec. 1, 1958, YVA, AM.1 343.

103 Minutes of meeting of the construction committee, Dec. 23, 1958, YVA, AM.1 343; minutes of the construction committee, July 16, 1959, STA, 95-3.17 (2).

104 Reviews by members of the executive at the first session of the Fifth World Council, Jan. 17, 1960, ISA, GL-1/13346. On the argument over the location of the memorial, see meeting of the construction committee, May 17, 1960, ISA, GL-3/13346; minutes of meeting of the construction committee, June 14, 1960, YVA, AM.1 360.

105 Exhibition of the proposals for the tower of heroism on the Mount of Remembrance, Jerusalem, Jan. 16–Feb. 15, 1963, YVA, AMI 348; minutes of meeting of the Yad Vashem executive committee, July 17, 1962, ISA, GL-3/1786.

106 Public competition for the design and construction of a monument to heroism on the Mount of Remembrance, undated, ISA, GL-3/1299.

107 Arieh Kobovi, “The Many Shades and Heroism” (address at the cornerstone laying of the heroism monument, Jerusalem, April 9, 1964), YVA, AMI 433. For photographs of the occasion, see YVA, 5330/295.

108 Letter from Y. Samet to Y. Gal-Ezer, April 5, 1967, ISA, GL-7/13387.

109 Letter from H. Krongold to Yad Vashem, Oct. 27, 1966, YVA, AM.3 868 V; letter from attorney Aharon Paritzki to A.S. Shimron, Feb. 7, 1969, YVA, AM.3 868 V.

110 See the inscription ‘Zekhor’ on the pillar in the plan for the pillar in the appendix to the building permission application, Jan. 17, 1968, Jerusalem Municipal Archive (JMA), 1959/715.

111 On the symbolic link between Masada and the Holocaust, see Zerubavel, “Masada and the Holocaust.”

112 Minutes of meeting of the Yad Vashem executive committee, Jan. 3, 1967 (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1967).

113 Buki Schwartz, “Amud ha-gevura,” Kav 8 (1968), pp. 59–60. The plan for the building of the monument to heroism was submitted to the local building and planning committee of the city of Jerusalem on Jan. 17, 1968. See appendix to the application for building permission, JMA, 1959/715.

114 “Hanukat amud ha-gevura be-har ha-zikaron,” Yad Vashem News: Events, Activities, Publications 2 (1970), p. 13; Menahem Barash, “Kenes olami bi-yerushalaim shel asirei ha-mahtarot,” Yediot Aharonot, Jan. 3, 1968.

115 Mooli Brog, “Netsurim be-homot ha-zikaron: andartat geto varsha ke-semel ‘ha-shoah ve-ha-gevura’ be-polin uve-yisra’el,” Alpayim 14 (1997), pp. 148–173, p. 149.

116 Ben-Zion Dinur, Fundamental problems of planning the structures of Yad Vashem on the Mount of Remembrance, undated, STA, 95-3.17 (2).

117 Dalia Ofer, “We Israelis Remember, But How? The Memory of the Holocaust and the Israeli Experience,” Israel Studies 18:2 (2013), pp. 70–85.‏

118 Hanna Yablonka, “Ma le-zikhro ve-keitsad? Nitsolei ha-shoah ve-itsuv yediata,” in Anita Shapira, Jehuda Reinharz, and Ya’akov Haris, (eds.), Idan ha-Tsiyonut (Jerusalem: Zalman Shazar Center, 2000), pp. 297–316.

119 Harold Marcuse, “Holocaust Memorials: The Emergence of a Genre,” American Historical Review 115 (2010), pp. 53–89.‏

120 Maoz Azaryahu and Batia Donner, Beit Lohamei Ha-Geta’ot le-Moreshet ha-Shoah ve-ha-Mered al Shem Yitshak Katznelson, 1949–1999 (Lohamei Ha-Geta’ot: Beit Lohamei Ha-Geta’ot, 2000); Batia Donner, Natan Rapaport: Oman Yehudi (Jerusalem and Givat Haviva: Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi and Yad Ya’ari, 2015), pp. 182–215.

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Notes on contributors

Doron Bar

Doron Bar is the President of the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem.