The Holocaust and Yad Vashem Video or DVD

While many know the figures and the general history associated with the Holocaust ("Shoah" in Hebrew, literally "catastrophe"), few understand the political developments that led up to the rise of Hitler and the drastic social changes that he managed to introduce practically overnight. "The Holocaust and Yad Vashem" chronicles these developments and the "Zeitgeist" ("spirit of the times") of the German people from the end of World War I through the rise to power of the Nazis, their polemical speeches, book-burnings, terrifying rallies, the "German war machine's" weapons manufacture and European conquest. From the seemingly innocent faces of the Nazi Youth Movement to the anything but innocent Nurenberg race laws, "The Holocaust and Yad Vashem" makes clear once and for all the social and political changes that turned this "most enlightened nation" into an army of bloodthirsty monsters.

Behind this "proud nationalist triumph" lurk the scenes from Jewish life under their rule: in the ghettos, on transports, in the concentration, work, and death camps. The true decimation of European Jewry becomes strikingly clear when these scenes of misery and death are contrasted with those of a flourishing, productive, and most happy European Jewish community before the war. Many of these brave souls would not give up their right to the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness without a fight: the Jewish Underground, resistance and freedom fighters, and the various ghetto uprisings are equally portrayed as crucial elements in the Jewish struggle to maintain morale... and survival. Beginning and ending at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem, the film is itself the best answer to the question of who really triumphed in this most horrid catastrophe.

"Yad", the word for "memorial" in the Holy Language, is also the word for "hand"... and truly our remembrance, the cry of "Never Again!", depends not upon empty words, but upon our actions.

Running Time: 30 minutes