Images on this page
Project materials held at McGillProject Title
Yad Vashem Memorial to the Deportees
Alternate Titles
Yad Vashem Holocaust Transport Memorial
Description
Established in 1953, the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority emerged as part of a law that created a new institution—called Yad Vashem, meaning “a place and a name”—committed to the study and commemoration of the Holocaust. Today, a four-acre site on Mount Herzl in western Jerusalem is home to a complex of Yad Vashem memorials designed by Safdie: the Children’s Holocaust Memorial, the Memorial to the Deportees, and the Holocaust History Museum. The first two are small structures located to the east and west, respectively, of the prismatic central museum.
Replacing the original building from 1957, the Holocaust History Museum includes a new reception building (Mevoah), a Hall of Names, a synagogue, galleries for Holocaust art, an exhibitions pavilion, and a learning and visual center. In addition there are underground parking and facilities for tour buses adjacent to a new entrance piazza. The overall program quadruples the permanent exhibition space.
The three memorials weave together to resonate and reinforce each other as devices of memory, particularly though their manipulation of light. In the Children’s Memorial, a single candle is reflected in multiple mirrors to give the impression of infinite space; in the central museum, the main exhibit galleries are below-grade and lit from above, creating a path that leads visitors from light to darkness and back to light. Within this path, shallow angular trenches in the floor filled with artifacts and other documentary material direct visitors from gallery to gallery. As visitors leave the museum, the tunnel’s walls open onto a panoramic view of a sunlit Israel, metaphorically linking the Holocaust to the country’s founding.
Images on this page: 1 Train car and track with inscribed witness testimony; 2 View from below; 3 Detail photo; 4 Site photo; 5 Site section
Jerusalem, Israel
Replacing the original building from 1957, the Holocaust History Museum includes a new reception building (Mevoah), a Hall of Names, a synagogue, galleries for Holocaust art, an exhibitions pavilion, and a learning and visual center. In addition there are underground parking and facilities for tour buses adjacent to a new entrance piazza. The overall program quadruples the permanent exhibition space.
The three memorials weave together to resonate and reinforce each other as devices of memory, particularly though their manipulation of light. In the Children’s Memorial, a single candle is reflected in multiple mirrors to give the impression of infinite space; in the central museum, the main exhibit galleries are below-grade and lit from above, creating a path that leads visitors from light to darkness and back to light. Within this path, shallow angular trenches in the floor filled with artifacts and other documentary material direct visitors from gallery to gallery. As visitors leave the museum, the tunnel’s walls open onto a panoramic view of a sunlit Israel, metaphorically linking the Holocaust to the country’s founding.
Images on this page: 1 Train car and track with inscribed witness testimony; 2 View from below; 3 Detail photo; 4 Site photo; 5 Site section
Jerusalem, Israel
Timeline
between 1991 and 1995
Location
Status
Completion Date
Notes
Client: Yad Vashem Board (The Holocaust Museum);
Cost: US $1 million
Cost: US $1 million
Theme
Project Type
Creator
Safdie Architects
Rights:
© Safdie Architects. Explicit permission to use images is required. Contact the Communications Director at Safdie Architects (617.629.2100) for more information.