A final resting place
Yad Vashem in Jerusalem has become the final resting place for the memories of parents, grandparents and siblings of Australian Jewish families whose family members perished in the Holocaust.
The Australian Wall
Rarely do members of the Australian Jewish community attend a funeral or consecration without visiting the graves of close family members…but there are many for whom there is no memorial.
Plaque donated by Peter and Yvonne Halas and family from Sydney
The final resting places of most the six million who died during the Shoah are not known and for many families the only tangible memory may be an old photograph.
As the Holocaust slips into history and the number of those who endured it dwindles, Yad Vashem is increasingly becoming the central repository for the memories and historical records of those who perished.
The Memorial Cave within Yad Vashem’s complex has an area set aside for Australian families in which the non-existent headstones commemorating the lives of those tragically murdered by the Nazis can be replaced with a single plaque.
Although there is a charge for this, participating families can rest assured that there will always be somewhere for their children and their children’s children to visit where they will be able to spend time reflecting on the lives of those without whom they would not have been born.
The cost of a plaque starts at USD1800 but can be paid for in Australian dollars.
Next week, a representative of Yad Vashem will visit Australia.
Anyone interested in purchasing a plaque in Yad Vashem should email Peter Loewy at [email protected]
A sensitive coherent article with excellent presentation.