Picture of the day - May 23, 2007

Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial

Photo courtesy of Adam Harrison. Ever since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, there have been many depraved individuals who made conscious decisions to inflict misery and suffering upon their fellow human beings. From the gruesome "sporting events" of ancient Rome and the "killing fields" of Cambodia to the mindless slaughter being carried out even today in parts of Africa, the capability of the human mind to even conceive of such brutality towards other human beings is simply beyond comprehension. There have been atrocities such as these committed all throughout human history, but some of the most disturbing of all them took place during the 20th century, including Adolph Hitler's evil and systematic plan to round up and exterminate the millions of European Jews under the cover of World War II... the monstrous event we know today as "The Holocaust". In order to carry out his diabolical plan, Hitler instructed his henchmen to seek out and capture each and every Jewish man, woman and child they could find and assemble them in various concentration camps where they would be brutalized, experimented on and murdered, literally by the millions. No one knows exactly how many Jews died at Hitler's command, but the best estimate is somewhere around six million. And that staggering number doesn't even include the millions of other people who died because of his sinister persecution and intense love for making war. Hitler's evil regime eventually crumbled under the onslaught of Allied forces, but not before he managed to escape the judgment he so richly deserved by committing suicide. Oh well, God is the ultimate judge of all men, including tyrants, dictators and mass murderers. He surely paid quite a price for his evil deeds in the end. Numerous Holocaust memorials have been built around the world in the years since WWII, including the one featured in today's picture: Jerusalem's poignant Yad Vashem. Photographer Adam Harrison captured this simple, yet extremely moving image last April inside the memorial's "Hall of Remembrance".   Visit the POTD Archives for previous "Pictures Of The Day"!     Submit a photo of your own!            Why I publish the "Picture of the Day"