27 June 2013
Today the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby was visibly moved during a guided tour of Yad Vashem’s Holocaust History Museum and the Children’s Memorial.
After entering the Hall of Names, where the Pages of Testimony of Jewish victims of the Holocaust are housed in perpetuity, the Archbishop, accompanied by his wife Caroline and son Peter, was presented with a Page of Testimony and archival information from the Yad Vashem Archives. The documents were regarding a young boy who was most likely a distant Jewish relative of his who was murdered in the Holocaust.
Deeply emotional and with tears in his eyes, the Archbishop of Canterbury asked for a moment of solitude before continuing on to the Children’s Memorial.
After signing the Yad Vashem Guest Book, Archbishop Welby concluded his visit sharing some thoughts from his experience, “This is not a place for words, it’s a place for tears and a place for learning and remembering, and I think the fewer words the better.”
