Today I went to the Nova exhibition in London.
It was overwhelming. They said it would take 60-90 minutes to go around it. I was there for two and a half hours, and I didn't see everything.
The design of the exhibition invokes the carnage and chaos of the day - it's a masterclass in exhibition/museum design.
Some of the clips of footage shown in it I remember seeing, lying in bed, on the 7th October 2023 as I tried to work out what was happening in Israel where one of my best friends was currently visiting for a wedding.
I stood by the burnt out husks of cars wondering if this was where people had died, or had they managed to miraculously escape and get away without being mowed down by gunfire.
I started to read the Dinah Project report before realising I couldn't do that in a museum - I needed to be somewhere I felt safe if I wanted to expose myself to that level of horror.
It's been 14 years since I was last in Israel.
I'd never seen a roadside bomb shelter before today but they had either bought with or built one at the exhibition to talk about what Hamas did to those inside. They aren't big. I cannot imagine being trapped there, pinned behind 40 others as terrorists fire bullets and grenades inside. I spent most of the exhibition on the edge of tears, or actively crying.
That was just the first room.
The memorial wall for the hostages has a video of an interview with Rachel and Jon, the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin. They're wearing masking tape with the number 165 written across it. Rachel speaks with such optimism about her son - they've already seen a hostage release so why would Hersh who was confirmed to be alive not be coming home. I watched that video knowing what those two incredible people would have to go through again just five months later.
The memorial room for the dead had images and words written for almost all those killed at Nova.
I read every name across the three walls.
The interviews with survivors tell of stories of luck. Luck, and deep unadulterated horror at the way so many survived while hearing their friends' final moments. The bar littered with the bodies of all those who tried to hide behind it; the portaloos riddled with bullet holes; the woman who hid in a skip under bags of garbage to survive while others died all around her.
The processing room where we learnt of the foundations set up to help provide heal included videos from the creators of the Nova festival on how they have danced again. I'm proud that Glastonbury in the UK (despite everything) had had memorials for Nova for the past two years and are planning this year's one at the moment.
I was privileged to be there when a Nova survivor was visiting and he shared his testimony. We must bear witness and refuse to let people rewrite the history of this slaughter, this massacre. We know in horrifying detail what inhumane actions were inflicted on innocents that day and this exhibition refuses to let them be forgotten.
To be remembered is to live forever and we will never forget what happened.
If you are UK based, I urge you to go. It's not easy, but it's important.
