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Teary Bush visits Yad Vashem
11/01/2008 11:30 - (SA)
Jerusalem - A teary-eyed US President George W Bush visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem on Friday, saying it stood as a reminder that evil must be resisted.
The memorial commemorates the six million Jews murdered in Nazi Germany during World War II and is an obligatory stop for foreign dignitaries visiting Israel.
After touring the memorial and laying a wreath by the eternal flame inside, Bush said he hoped many people in the world would visit Yad Vashem.
"It'd be a sobering reminder that evil exists and a call that when we find evil we must resist it," he said.
"I guess I came away with this impression... that people in the face of horror and evil would not forsake their God.
"That in the face of unspeakable crimes against humanity brave souls, young and old, stood strong for what they believe. It's a honour to be here, it is a moving experience, it is a living memory that is important."
Wearing a black kippa, a contemplative Bush toured the memorial accompanied by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, President Shimon Peres and other senior officials.
In the Hall of Remembrance, the American president turned up the eternal flame after a girls' choir sang a poem written by a Jewish woman who was murdered by the Gestapo in Hungary during World War II.
Flanked by two uniformed US Marines, he then placed a wreath at the flame and bowed his head for a few moments.
With moistened eyes, he listened to a cantor sing a Jewish prayer.
Bush is wrapping up a three-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories, his first trip to the Holy Land since assuming office in 2001, before heading to Gulf Arab states.
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