Holocaust Museums

[Yankel Nosson]

Did the Rebbe ever express any opinion on this near-obsession with Holocaust museums?

[zaque36]

what would be wrong with them?

[shpitzchabad]

See Likutei Sichos Vol. 3 Parshas Lech Lechah...

http://www.otzar770.com/cgi-bin/imgserv.exe/convert?ilFN=C:\HOME\ocr_files\main\sihot\03\B0751 .tif&ilIF=G&ilSC=30

http://www.otzar770.com/cgi-bin/imgserv.exe/convert?ilFN=C:\HOME\ocr_files\main\sihot\03\B0752 .tif&ilIF=G&ilSC=30

http://www.otzar770.com/cgi-bin/imgserv.exe/convert?ilFN=C:\HOME\ocr_files\main\sihot\03\B0753 .tif&ilIF=G&ilSC=30

[Yankel Nosson]

I'm not quite so shpitz...perhaps you could summarize from the Yiddish (which I can't understand)?

[noahidelaws]

BS"D In short, after the world was destroyed by the flood, the survivors, instead of doing teshuva, built a tower in rebellion against Hashem's Kingship. They didn't learn their lesson.

So too, the survivors of the recent "flood" = what people call the Holocaust/Shoah (the Rebbe doesn't use that term), should not follow the example of those who built the tower. Their first priority should have been to raise their spiritual level. Instead they built a tower to perpetuate their name, a tower which had no other purpose than being as high as possible.

The connection that shpitzchabad seems to be drawing is: despite the worthy intentions of the founders of Holocaust museums, monuments etc., the proper emphasis should be on building the Jewish people up spiritually, for that alone will truly ensure our survival.

[thatswhy]

I don't know the Rebbe opinion on going to these places. i heard the Rebbe felt there is no point in dwelling on disruction of the Jewish ppl.
I'll try to share with you my feelings- (i know that it does not belong in this thread for who am I in light of the Rebbe's words).
I visited in both Holocuast museums (Yad Vashem in isreal and the one Washington), and i toured in Auschwitz.
The Holocuast museums though both are quite different, Yad Vashem is more a remembrance of Jewish life that once was whilst in Wahingtom its more like a museum. However both are dwelling on the past and the distruction that was. The feeling i felt when I left was emptiness, full of questions how can such thing happen etc.
When i was in Auschwitz it was very different, my feeling (it's hard to put it words) was, i will never let the natzis YEMACH SHEMOM win, i will do i can to contriute to the survival of Judaism.
why did i have such diff. feelings? i don't know. but that's what happened.

[noahidelaws]

BS"D Perhaps it's because Aushwitz was the past itself, whereas the museums are institutionalised, "packaging" the past with the aim of eliciting a certain response.

[Jude]

Yom Ha-Shoah -also known as Holocaust Remembrance Day, is marked on the 27th of Nissan. "Shoah" is the Hebrew word for the Holocaust. This is a memorial day for those who died in the Holocaust.

do Chabad houses "observe" this day?

any answers from the Rebbe about it?

[mordechai7215]

I once heard that the Rebbe said why is it that we have tzom Gedaliah for one person yet we don't have Yom Hashoah for 6 million? The answer was that Gedaliah was a neshamah clalis while these were neshmos pratim. It's a little hard to digest though.
B'poel we remember the Holocaust on 9 av (in the English artscroll kinus it gives a few reasons for not keeping "yom hoashoah".
On a slightly different note I find it so grotesque how people try to commemorate those that passed away. I've seen barbed wire statues and monuments, these yellow candles with the star on them. I don't get it. What will give more nachas to the neshamah, doing another mitzvah or commemorate their torture.

[stwill]

B'poel we remember the Holocaust on 9 av (in the English artscroll kinus it gives a few reasons for not keeping "yom hoashoah".

Isn't 10 Teves the day for Kaddish Klali (Or something like that?)

[Smirnoff]

Did the Rebbe ever express any opinion on this near-obsession with Holocaust museums?
במענה לארגון יוצאי עיר גלובאקע על החלטתם לבנות מוזיאון לזכר קדשי עירם הי"ד כתב הרבי בזה"ל

איזה עילוי יהי' להנשמות ע"ה ע"י שיתוסף עוד...מוזעי באה"ק?! (ועל הראשונים מצטערים) בהסכום שכותבים שרוצים להשקיע בהבנין- אפשר ללמד יהדות לכו"כ מאות דיוצאי גלובאקע וכיו"ב, ואיך זה "מסייע" (עכ"פ "ברמז") לפעולה – הפכית?! – אולי ג"ז מהסיבות שלא נכתב בהקו"ק: "ב"ה", "הי"ד", התאריך היהודי ועוד

הנ"ל – אינו סתירה לנסיעתו שהרי יכול לנצלה להשפעה רצוי' על המתעסקים בכ"ז. וק"ל

[Yankel Nosson]

There's also a letter in Igros that I saw recently where the Rebbe speaks critically of spending money on a memorial in Paris, however the Rebbe does mention that there is a positive side to it.