Yad Vashem, meaning “a name and a place” (from Isaiah 56: 5), is an archive, research institute, museum and, above all, a monument to perpetuate the memory of the more than six million who died in the Nazi Holocaust. More than 20 monuments occupy this hillside site.

Entrance to Yad Vashem is along the Avenue of the Righteous Among Nations, which is lined with plaques bearing the names of Gentiles who helped Jews and, in doing so, put their own lives at risk. Some 16,000 people are recognized, including Oskar Schindler. The avenue leads to the new Historical Museum, which was designed by Jewish architect Moshe Safdie and inaugurated in 2005. The museum is one long corridor, carved into the mountain, with 10 exhibition halls, each dedicated to a different chapter of the Holocaust. Its exhibits include some 2,500 personal items donated by survivors, adding a harrowing first-person dimension to the horrors that began with the rise of the Nazis in 1933 and culminated in the death camps.

The Hall of Remembrance beside the museum is a stark, tomb-like chamber that bears the names of 21 of the main camps on flat, black basalt slabs. At the centre of the vast chamber is a casket of ashes from the cremation ovens; above it is an eternal flame. The nearby Hall of Names is devoted to recording the names of all those Jews who perished, along with as much biographical detail as possible.

Visitors to Yad Vashem are expected to dress appropriately; shorts and miniskirts are not acceptable.