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The need for the Holocaust memorials are for monuments to those who do not even have a gravesite. However, the true legacy of the Holocaust is not the memorials, it is rather the nation resuscitated, the eternal Israel. Rabbi Riskin explains: "
On Passover we not only memorialise our servitude in Egypt, but emphasize our Exodus. Our G-d is fundamentally a redeemer; the principal characteristic of our people must not be its pain but rather its eternity. The emotions evoked by these new and brilliantly designed Holocaust memorials will be wasted unless their message includes the awesome promise of resurrection.We dare not monumentalise our people with the image of death. At the same time that we castigate the nations of the world for having created a climate which could allow a Holocaust, and document the horrors of the Nazi scourge, we dare not forget that Israel emerged victorious from its war against Hitler."
The nature of the Jewish peoples' covenant means that even when they are subjected to the unimaginable cruelty of a Holocaust, the message remains the same: The covenant needs to be remembered, the Jewish people need to be a light unto the nations to show the world how to rise above baser instincts. One is created in the image of G-d and therefore we need to live according to the values of justice and mercy. In that way, suffering itself becomes the source of the Jewish message to the world.
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