ABSTRACT
Yad Vashem is after all a compulsory place to visit, whether you are a member of the Israeli Defence Force, an Israeli schoolchild or a foreign tourist. Yad Vashem – 'The Memorial Authority for the Holocaust and Heroism' – was to be as much about 'heroism' as it was to be about 'martyrdom'. In placing such emphasis upon 'heroism', Yad Vashem reflected the common approach to the 'Holocaust' in the early years of the Israeli State. The site reflects the official telling of the Holocaust past. In many ways, the geographical complexity of the Holocaust has been microscoped at the end of the twentieth century into two places which have assumed mythical proportions: 'Warsaw' and 'Auschwitz'. Remembering the 'Holocaust Jew' at Yad Vashem is thus a remembering in gendered terms, which draws upon the 'common stereotype that depicted the Exile as weak, feminine, and passive, and the yishuv as strong, masculine, and active'.
