Remembering Names

Yad Vashem is a memorial for the Holocaust in Jerusalem. There’s a library there that holds records of names—all six million martyrs of that horrific time of senseless killing. Included are first and last and sometimes middle names, where they are from, and any other details that can be remembered about those who died.

Yad Vashem means “memorial to the name”. It’s not commemorating an idea or an event or even a culprit. It’s the memory of names.

Names are what we first learn about people. It’s who they are when they leave a room. And leave life.

Remembering a name is honoring a person. It’s saying “Yes” to their life. It’s saying “No” to death.

When people become numbers instead of names, buying units (or giving units) instead of faces, we have stripped them of life.

Numbers matter.
Names matter more.

H/T Natalie Goldberg for this stream of thought.