7: Photograph of the wagon (or cattle car) monument at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, 2015.

7: Photograph of the wagon (or cattle car) monument at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, 2015.

From resource kit: “Written in Pencil in the Sealed Railway-Car” by Dan Pagis

This monument, also known as the Memorial to the Deportees, is on display at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Israel. Though it is not visible in this photograph, Dan Pagis’ poem “Written in Pencil in the Sealed Railway-Car” is included in the display.

Suggested Activity: Discuss with students: What do you see in this image? What feelings does it evoke? Why do you think Yad Vashem has included this railway car in their exhibits? Why do you think the car is displayed as it is, in the treetops, at the end of a broken track?

What do you think about the choice to include “Written in Pencil” with the car? How might that affect a visitor’s experience of the car, or a reader’s experience of the poem? 

Source: Shiva, Andrew, photographer. “ISR-2015-Jerusalem-Yad Vashem-Wagon monument 01” Photograph. Jerusalem, Israel: Wikimedia Commons, 2015. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ISR-2015-Jerusalem-Yad_Vashem-Wagon_monument_01.jpg (accessed May 26, 2017).