11 – Yad LaBanim

This is a memorial site that stretches across 10 dunams. It is close to the beach and the promenade and includes a few different complexes. At the edge of the site is the Victory Monument, which we learned about earlier. The Bet Yad LaBanim complex is dedicated to the memories of Netanya residents who fell in Israel’s wars. Another structure is dedicated to soldiers from the armored corps, and alongside it is a Merkava tank developed by the Israeli armored corps in the 1970s.
At the northern side of the site are the remnants of a Byzantine church from the 6th century CE, discovered when preparing the initial foundation of the Kiryat Nordau neighborhood. The artifacts from the church, the most exciting of which is a mosaic floor featuring ivy leaf decorations, were transferred intact to this site.
The site also features several environmental sculptures created by talented Israeli sculptors such as Dina Merhav, Dan Rappaport and Yigal Tumarkin, as well as grassy areas. But what immediately attracts the attention of most visitors is the maroon-colored cattle car perched at the east end of the site, just like the cattle car at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. This is just one of the hundreds of thousands of cattle cars that were so heartlessly used by the Nazis during World War II to transport Jews from the ghettos to the death camps. We will never forget!
Address: 4 Ben Gurion Boulevard.