Kibbutz Lochamei Hageta’ot, Israel — The Ghetto Fighters’ Museum in this kibbutz, one kilometre north of Acre and six kilometres south of Nahariya, is the granddaddy of all Holocaust museums.

The museum’s main building [Sheldon Kirshner photo]

Tamir Porter, an official in its overseas department, describes it as the world’s first Holocaust museum.

It was founded in 1949 by survivors of ghettos and veterans of partisan bands to commemorate compatriots lost in the Holocaust.

Designed to evoke a spirit of rebellion rather than death, it received 120,000 visitors last year, many of whom were students.

Adjacent to the grand remains of a Roman aqueduct, the museum consists of two adjoining buildings – a functional box-like structure whose exhibits document the genocide, and Yad Layeled, a space-age cone-shaped building dedicated to the memory of the 1.5 million Jewish children killed by the Nazis and their collaborators.

The museum, whose attractive green spaces were laid out by the Jewish National Fund, gets its message across through impressive technology.

Upon entering the main building, a visitor is struck by a large plasma screen in which the names of 4,700 decimated Jewish communities are represented by floating white letters that alternately merge and fall away.

Additional screens relate the stories of victims and survivors, and these are often poignant.

Interconnected pavilions, covering a variety of themes, form the heart and soul of the museum,

The Warsaw Ghetto uprising, which broke out in the spring of 1943 and was mercilessly crushed by the Germans, is evoked through the medium of stark photographs of pain and resistance and of heart-rending testimonies.

Facing the armed might of the German army and police, the ghetto fighters had relatively few weapons at their disposal, and this fact is graphically conveyed in an exhibit in which primitive homemade bombs, pistols and rifles are displayed.

Further pavilions deal with the ghetto system, the deportation process and the concentration camps.

Still others concentrate on the mythical shtetl and on the rise of Adolf Hitler’s fanatical regime through photographs, models and maps.

The art gallery, lit by natural light, contains more than 3,000 original pieces. Only Yad Vashem, in Jerusalem, has a larger collection. The drawings are by turns sorrowful and defiant, a microcosm of the artists’ hellish ordeal.

One of the most interesting artifacts is the wood and glass booth in which  the arch Nazi war criminal, Adolf Eichmann, sat passively as his trial unfolded in Jerusalem in 1961.

As you gaze upon the eerie exhibit, a rush of images flood the mind: Eichmann in Palestine in 1937 to assess the possibility of Jewish emigration from Europe; Eichmann in Vienna in 1938 to expel Jews from Austria; Eichmann in Wannsee in 1942 to participate in the infamous conference at which the Final Solution emerged; Eichmann in Buenos Aires in 1960 when he was kidnapped by Israeli security agents; Eichmann in Ramla in 1961 when he was hanged, the only person to be executed in Israel.

Yad Layeled, primarily intended for young visitors aged 10 and up, was opened in 1996 and is made up of two permanent exhibitions, a temporary exhibition and workshops for organized groups and families.

“The Story of the Jewish Child During the Holocaust” recounts the fate of the murdered children.

Overhead speakers and television monitors convey their experiences, while photographs, sacks and suitcases offer a glimpse of the uncertainty and terror that must have gripped them as the Nazi terror descended on the European continent.

“Janusz Korczak of the Children” honours an educator, author, humanitarian and hero who, in August 1942,  sacrificed his life for the sake of the children in his Warsaw Jewish orphanage.  Offered sanctuary on the Aryan side, he chose death instead, aligning himself  with his charges, who were summarily deported to and gassed in Treblinka.

The man and his ideas are introduced through an interactive presentation.

“Following the Path of One Picture” delves into the testimonies of 22 child survivors and engages visitors in a research and discovery experience.

The workshops, at the end of the tour, enable visitors to express their feelings   by way of arts and crafts, drama, creative writing and projects combing some or all of the above.

The museum’s amphitheatre is located in a perfect setting, next to the Roman aqueduct and overlooking the green hills and plains of the Galilee.

Appropriately enough, the closing ceremony of Holocaust Remembrance Day, an annual event, takes place in this theatre.