Yad Vashem - 2005
Righteous Among the Nations from Poland and Holland
Ceremony at Yad Vashem Nov. 7
(November 6, 2005 - Jerusalem) A ceremony honoring Hipolit and Wiktoria Ropelewski and their son Robert from Poland, and Elizabeth Bol from Holland as Righteous Among the Nations will be held at Yad Vashem tomorrow, November 7, 2005 at 11:30. The Ropelewski family looked after Miroslava Arditi in Poland when she was a baby, presenting her as a child of relatives, and also hid her mother Leah Cheskelberg in their home near Warsaw during the war. Elizabeth Bol helped her parents hide and care for Jews in their house in the west of Holland.
Chairman of the Commission of Designation of the Righteous Among the Nations, Judge Jacob Turkel will present the certificate and medal to Robert Ropelewski’s daughter, Wiktoria Bogdan and to Elizabeth Bol in the presence of approximately 80 people - including survivors Dr. Mordechai Menat and Miroslava Arditi, the Cultural Attaché of the Embassy of the Netherlands, Dik Wentink and family members of the rescuers and the survivors.
The ceremony will be conducted in Hebrew and translated in Dutch and Polish. The program is as follows:
11:30 Presentation of the awards and medals in the Yad Vashem Auditorium
12:30 Unveiling of names in the Garden of the Righteous
Background Information:
Hipolit, Wiktoria and Robert Ropelewski
Miroslava Arditi was born in the Warsaw Ghetto on February 7, 1942 to Leah and Nathan Cheskelberg. In November 1942, Nathan handed his baby daughter Miroslava to his Polish friend Hipolit Ropelewski hoping to save her life. Miroslava lived with the Ropelewski family in the Warsaw suburb of Mlociny, where she was taken care of by the mother of the family, Wiktoria Ropelewski and the son Robert who was 15 years old at the time.
The family told people that the baby was a daughter of a relative who had been killed during the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, and protected her and cared for all her needs. The family also hid other Jews in their basement and other hiding places in Mlociny at great risk to their lives, particularly since a Gestapo watchtower, which was guarding a telephone cable, was positioned close to their house and there were neighbors who suspected that the child was Jewish.
During the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto, Miroslava’s father Nathan was killed, but her mother Leah managed to escape and also hide in the Ropelweski’s house, where they were both hidden until the liberation of Warsaw.
Elizabeth Bol
Elizabeth, who was 15 at the time, assisted her parents who were members of a local underground movement in Holland, in hiding and caring for Jews in their house. She was responsible for warning them about Nazi searches of houses, buying food with forged food coupons, and encouraging Jews by updating them with news about their families and the outside world. At times, the family hid over ten people in their house, mostly Jews. Occasionally, when the parents were absent, Elizabeth was responsible for looking after the Jews who were hiding.
When news circulated in July 1943, that due to informers, the hiding places in the Bol household were compromised, Elizabeth managed with much resourcefulness to find alternative hiding places for four of the eight Jews who were hiding in their house, one of whom was Mordechai Menat. When Elizabeth’s parents came home, they found other hiding places for the rest of them. About a week later the Germans appeared in the Bol’s house and headed straight for the hiding place of the Jews, but found no one. After the search the parents were arrested. The mother was released after two weeks and the father was deported to the camps of Vught and Amersfoort where he remained until a week before liberation in May 1945.
____________________________________
Yad Vashem Welcomes United Nations Resolution on Holocaust Remembrance
Resolution’s focus on education key to safeguarding basic human values
(November 1, 2005 - Jerusalem) Yad Vashem welcomes the adoption today by the United Nations General Assembly of the resolution - the first proposed by Israel - on Holocaust Remembrance. Yad Vashem regards this decision as a direct follow up to the participation of Secretary General Kofi Annan at the inauguration of the Holocaust History Museum in March 2005.
"The United Nations, by adopting this resolution, expressed its recognition of the importance of Holocaust remembrance as well as the role that Holocaust education plays in safeguarding basic human values," said Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate Avner Shalev.
Shalev praised the resolution for emphasizing the importance of educating about the Holocaust. “Beyond the ceremonial and symbolic significance of marking Holocaust Memorial Days, the resolution recognizes the need for supporting ongoing education about the Holocaust. With its expertise in teacher training, curricula development and activities and seminars held worldwide, Yad Vashem’s International School of Holocaust Studies stands ready to assist in developing unique educational programs designed to meet the specific needs and interests of each particular country.”
Yad Vashem’s International School for Holocaust Studies is active in 22 countries in 11 languages. For more information about the activities of the International School: <http://www1.yadvashem.org/education/index_education.html>.
______________________________________
International Forum on Holocaust Education opens at Yad Vashem
11 countries participate in Yad Vashem-OSCE working meetings
(October 9, 2005 - Jerusalem) The European Department of the International School for Holocaust Studies is hosting an international forum of thirteen experts in the fields of Holocaust education and antisemitism from eleven European countries to discuss best practices and practical strategies on promoting Holocaust education as well as combating antisemitism. The forum is being held in cooperation with the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The meetings follow the June 2005 Cordoba Conference on Antisemitism and other Forms of Intolerance, and are part of the implementation of the OSCE’s Berlin Declaration of April 2004.
The expert working meeting is taking place at the International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem from October 9-11, 2005, and explores professional strategies and methods to implement practical guidelines and teacher-training projects for the teaching of the Holocaust. The forum focuses on didactic tools and techniques with the aim to empower educators to foster Holocaust education, confront antisemitism and xenophobia as well as initiate local projects in their schools and communities. The international forum seeks to support European educators in this endeavor, encouraging their commitment to teach about this watershed event in world history.
The main objectives of the Forum are:
· To explore the meanings of the Holocaust beyond the boundaries of current educational paradigms, stretching them to new deeper levels of understanding and internalization.
· To empower educators by providing them with pedagogical guidelines and tools to combat the new antisemitism and its manifestations.
· To convey the importance of safeguarding human rights and preventing racism or xenophobia through Holocaust education.
· To support educators to teach the Holocaust using a multi-disciplinary, multicultural, and age-appropriate approach.
· To facilitate the creation of cadres of leaders in Holocaust education who will initiate and implement programs, thus widening the circle of qualified educators on the national and international levels.
A booklet summarizing the body’s deliberations and recommendations will be published.
________________________________
Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations: Belgium Published
Avner Shalev to present volume to Belgian Ambassador at Yad Vashem Ceremony
(September 26, 2005) On Tuesday, September 27, 2005, Avner Shalev, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate will present the Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations: Belgium to Belgian Ambassador Jean-Michel Veranneman de Watervliet. The ceremony will take place at 10:00 in the Yad Vashem Auditorium.
About the Encyclopedia:
The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations: Belgium contains 610 rescue stories about 1,172 Belgians who were recognized up to 1.1.2000. To date, 1,412 Belgians have been recognized as Righteous Among the Nations.
The volume contains a comprehensive introduction, a summary of the series and the individual rescue stories of the Belgian Righteous Among the Nations. Also included in the Encyclopedia are an index for cross-referencing, maps, a glossary and pictures. Professor Israel Gutman is editor of the Encyclopedia; the Belgian volume was edited by Professor Dan Michman.
Additional volumes of the Encyclopedia include Holland (2004), Poland (2004), France (2003), and two more forthcoming volumes covering the rest of Europe and the world.
The Righteous Among the Nations, in putting their lives at risk and in many cases those of their families, to save Jews for no altruistic motive whatsoever but simply because it was “the right thing to do”, demonstrated the highest standards of ethical and moral behavior. In 1953 the Knesset (Israeli parliament) established the Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance (Yad Vashem) Law, giving particular emphasis in the law "to commemorate the high-minded Gentiles who risked their lives to save Jews".
Yad Vashem - through the Commission for the Designation of Righteous Among the Nations - being legally empowered by the State of Israel, is the only body that gives official recognition to those who saved Jewish lives on behalf of the Jewish people. The independent Commission is comprised of Holocaust survivors, lawyers, historians, and private individuals and is chaired by a former Supreme Court Justice.
More information about the Righteous Among the Nations Program is available at: <http://www1.yadvashem.org/righteous/index_righteous.html>
____________________________________
Yad Vashem mourns the passing of Simon Wiesenthal
(September 20, 2005 - Jerusalem) Yad Vashem has learned with sadness of the passing of Simon Wiesenthal, in Vienna. Wiesenthal dedicated his life to bringing Nazi criminals to justice and to ensuring that the memory of the Holocaust will never fade.
The symbol of “Nazi-Hunting,” Wiesenthal began his mission immediately after the war ended, and did not rest until his final days. Through his tireless efforts, many Nazi war criminals were prevented from escaping their due punishment, compelled instead to face the force of international law. He was unique in an environment that did not do enough to bring the guilty to justice. In his determination to expose the crimes of Nazis, Wiesenthal was the world’s conscience, determined to document the full extent of Nazi war crimes, and hold those responsible accountable for their actions. Yad Vashem mourns this tremendous loss to the Jewish and international community.
In the mid-1950’s, Wiesenthal gave Yad Vashem hundreds of files and material from his the Jewish Historical Documentation Center in Linz, Austria, which he closed. In 1960 he gave Yad Vashem a written testimony, and in 1986 he gave Yad Vashem audio testimony. More information about Simon Wiesenthal is available at http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%206667.pdf.
________________
Righteous Among the Nations from Four Countries to be honored at Yad Vashem
(Jerusalem) A ceremony posthumously honoring five Righteous Among the Nations will take place at Yad Vashem today, July 21, 2005 at 11:30 a.m. The awards will be bestowed upon Yevgenia Morozova (Belarus), Stoicheva Stanka (Bulgaria), Feodor Melnik (Ukraine), and Steponas and Viktorija Zrelskis (Lithuania) and received by their next of kin.
The ceremony will be conducted in Hebrew and Russian, and will take place in the presence of some of the survivors, Sofa Kremen Grinshtein and Medi Hillel, and their families, as well as children or grandchildren of the rescuers. It will take place in the Education Center in the Valley of Communities, followed by the unveiling of the Righteous’ names in the Garden of the Righteous.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Yevgenia Morozova
After the Germans occupied Minsk on June 24, 1941, Faina Levina and her children Misha, Sofia and Galina were transferred together with many Jews to the ghetto which was established in the city in August 1941. Faina was a professional opera singer and knew pianist Yevgenia Morozova before the war. After the ghetto was established Faina received food and clothing from Yevgenia, who occasionally would also host Faina’s daughters Sofia and Galina at her house. During the aktion in March 1942, Faina and her son Misha were killed, however Sofia and Galina escaped to Yevgenia’s house and hid there for a few weeks.
Yevgenia obtained forged documents for the two sisters (aged 10 and 15) and moved them to an orphanage in the city where she visited them and pretended they were her relatives. Once the sisters were stopped in the street by a policeman who suspected they were Jewish. They asked the policeman to go to Yevgenia’s house, and she convinced him that they were her cousins, and that they were not Jewish at all. This was especially dangerous since Sofia and Galina’s father had been a well known pediatrician in Minsk before the war and there was a strong possibility that the policeman could have been former patient. After liberation, the sisters maintained contact with Yevgenia and her children, and in the 1970’s they immigrated to the USA, where they still live today. Yevgenia’s son Michail Morozov will receive her award.
Stanka Stoicheva
In Spring 1941 when Bulgaria was annexed to Nazi Germany, Bulgaria introduced discriminatory legislation against the Jews, including the “law of national protection” which designated new places where Jews were allowed to live in Bulgaria. Following the new law in the summer of 1942, Leah Farchi and her husband Jack were transferred from Sofia to the city of Pleven, and Jack was sent to forced labor.
Leah, who was pregnant, was left alone and she decided to flee to the city of Gergoviste, where her father lived with his wife and children. Stanka Stoicheva was the landlord of the apartment where Leah’s father stayed, and she agreed to hide Leah in her house until after she gave birth. Stanka even made an improvised hiding place for Leah in an old stable in the courtyard, and cared for all her needs. This was particularly dangerous since Leah did not have an official permit to be in that area. At one point during the pregnancy, Leah’s life was in danger, but it wasn’t possible for her to go to hospital without the proper permit. Stanka, who was a midwife by profession took it upon herself to help Leah give birth with the basic means at her disposal, and thus she saved both the lives of Leah and the baby, Medi. After the birth, Leah and Medi remained in Stanka’s house and took care of all their needs. Anelia Andieva will receive her grandmother’s award.
Feodor Melnik
When the city of Bar in Vinnitsa, East Ukraine, was conquered on July 16, Sofa Kremen and her parents were sent with the local Jews to the ghetto in the city. During the first aktion on 19 August 1942, the only ones who survived were professionals and their families. Sofa’s parents were killed in this aktion, but her uncle who was a professional worker claimed she was his daughter and managed to save her.
In the beginning of October 1942, Sofa heard that a man by the name of Feodor Melnik was looking for survivors of the Kremen family, and when she met him he revealed that he knew her father and therefore wanted to help her. Melnik hid Sofa in the attic of his work place and after a few days he smuggled her to a village in Transnistria where his parents were living. Sofa remained in his parents’ house the whole night, and from there they moved her to the ghetto in Shargorod, which was under Romanian control. Sofa remained there until liberation in March 1944. Immediately after liberation Melnik was drafted into the Red Army and fell in battle in 1945. Later Sofa testified that Melnik also aided a Jewish family by the name of Krasnyanski. Melnik’s daughter Ludmila will receive his award.
Steponas and Viktorija Zrelskis
When Kovno, Lithuania was occupied by the Germans on June 23, 1941, Isaak and Pesia Katz were sent to the Kovno ghetto. In August 1943, the couple managed to escape from the ghetto to the house of family friends: Steponas and Viktorija Zrelskis, who lived with their three young children in the village of Tauralauskis in the region of Lapes.
The Zrelskis couple hid Isaak and Pesia in a bunker that they built especially for them under their granary. They padded the bunker with straw and put a wooden bed in it. The couple stayed in the bunker until liberation in August 1944, then they returned to Kovno where they remained until their immigration to Germany in 1971. Even after moving to Germany, the couple kept in touch with the Zrelskis family, visited their house often and helped them financially. The Zrelskis’ granddaughter Rita Skrockiene will receive her late grandparents’ award.
More information about the Righteous Among the Nations program is available at <http://www1.yadvashem.org/righteous/home_righteous.html>
________________________________
International Seminar on Holocaust Education at
Yad Vashem
(June 27, 2004 - Jerusalem) Dozens of educators will gather today at Yad Vashem’s International School for Holocaust Studies for its annual Summer Seminar, entitled “Teaching the Shoah and Antisemitism.” Thirty Eight participants from over ten countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Poland, Ireland, Australia, Italy, South Africa, Lithuania, Serbia, Croatia and, for the first time, Macedonia will join Yad Vashem specialists and other lecturers from Israeli Universities to learn about approaches to teaching the Holocaust and antisemitism.
The seventeen-day program, sponsored by Asper International Programs in Holocaust Studies, The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and Yad Vashem, includes lectures on: “Jews, God and History,” “Reflection on the Phenomenon of Antisemitism in the Modern World,” “Using Technology in Teaching the Holocaust,” “Holocaust and Art,” “The Vatican and the Shoah - Post-Holocaust Christian Theology,” and “Confronting the Phenomenon of Holocaust Denial.” The seminar runs from June 27 - July 13 at Yad Vashem’s International School for Holocaust Studies.
Yad Vashem’s International School for Holocaust Studies is responsible for Holocaust education in Israel and abroad. Activities provided by the School include study seminars, teacher training programs, curricula development, overseas programming and publications. Seminars for educators are offered in over 10 different languages.
_______________________________________
New Synagogue to be Inaugurated at Yad Vashem in Presence of Chief Rabbis
Showcases Judaica from Destroyed Synagogues in Europe
(June 6, 2005 - Jerusalem) As part of the new museum complex at Yad Vashem, a new Synagogue will be inaugurated Wednesday, June 8, 2005 at 17:00. The new Synagogue, designed by architect Moshe Safdie and the interior design firm Tamuz, will serve as a place where visitors can say kaddish for beloved departed ones, where individuals can gather in silent prayer or join a traditional minyan in the communal atmosphere of a synagogue, and as a monument to the destroyed synagogues of Europe. A special media preview will take place at 16:00. RSVP requested.
Thirty-one distinct items will be on display, including four Torah Arks, and various other Judaicia from throughout Europe. The four arks, all of which come from Romania, were brought to Yad Vashem with the support of the late Prof. Nicolae Cajal, then president of the Federation of the Jewish Communities in Romania and with the backing of the Romanian government. In 1998, Yehudit Inbar, Director of the Museums Division and Haviva Peled Carmeli, Senior Artifacts Curator, traveled throughout Romania to trace what was left of a once thriving Jewish community. They visited, inter alia, Bucharest, Barlad, Radauti, Cluj, Timisoara, Iasi, Dorohoi and Constanta synagogues and found a wealth of Judaica and synagogue furnishings in synagogues hermetically sealed since the Holocaust. The remnants, discovered in pieces throughout Romania, arrived at Yad Vashem in November 1999. Yad Vashem’s restorers labored to fit the pieces back together; while at the same time endeavoring to preserve the state in which the items were discovered.
Among the items discovered was an Ark that was found in a local Romanian’s home who was using it as a clothes closet, the Torah Ark of the Apple Merchants Association Synagogue in Iasi, and the unraveling Torah Ark Curtain from Cluj. The main, functioning Torah Ark’s façade is from Barlad, Romania. In addition, there are ritual articles from Poland, Greece, Transnistria, Germany and Slovakia.
The inauguration ceremony will take place in the presence of Rabbi Yona Metzger, Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Shlomo Amar, the Rishon LeZion Chief Rabbi of Israel, Isaac Herzog MK, Minister of Housing and Construction, Eli Zborowski, Chairman of the American Society for Yad Vashem, Marilyn and Barry Rubenstien, of the USA, the donors of the new Synagogue and Avner Shalev, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate. The event will take place in the Square of Hope at Yad Vashem.
During the course of the evening, a Torah Scroll that survived the Holocaust will be dedicated. The Scroll was discovered in a barn in Wengrow near Lublin in Poland by a Polish farmer who gave it to an Israeli who visited there during the Communist area. The Scroll was discovered in pieces, but was repaired with the generous help of Allan and Sylvie Green, of France.
The Nazis destroyed thousands of synagogues and study-houses during the Holocaust. On Kristallnacht alone, more than 1,000 synagogues were burnt or destroyed.
“The Yad Vashem synagogue will serve as a memorial to the destroyed places of worship of European Jewry. It will be a testimonial to the indestructible faith, the rich spiritual world of European Jewry and the extraordinary will of the Jewish people to survive, to remember and to rebuild,” said Avner Shalev, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate.
_______________________________________
Righteous Among the Nations Ceremony at Yad Vashem
Righteous Among the Nations from Poland and Holland to be recognized
( Jerusalem) The ceremony posthumously honoring three Righteous Among the Nations took place at Yad Vashem June 1, 2005. The awards were bestowed upon Zofia Wroblewska-WieWiorowska, who rescued three Jews in Poland during the Holocaust, and Albertus and Margaretha Haverkort from Holland who rescued six people during the war.
The ceremony was conducted in Hebrew, Polish and Dutch. Kazimierz Laski, one of the survivors from Poland arrived from Austria along with family and friends of the survivors and the rescuers. Zofia Wroblewska-WieWiorowska’s and Albertus and Margaretha Haverkort’s children received the awards on behalf of their late parents, from Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council Professor Szewach Weiss.
The ceremony took place in the Garden of the Righteous at Yad Vashem.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Zofia Wroblewska-WieWiorowska
From the Fall of 1940 until September 1942, Anna Wolfowicz and her daughter Irena lived in the house of Anna’s father, Dr. Tendler in the Ghetto of Zelechov, which is near Garvolin in Poland. In September 1942, at the time of the liquidation of the Zelechov Ghetto, the grandfather was murdered and Anna and Irena fled to Warsaw and found a hiding place in a Women’s Shelter with the aid of a school friend of Anna’s - Zofia Wroblewska-WieWiorowska from Czestochowa who worked at the shelter.
Zofia hid Anna and her daughter in the Women’s Shelter for two years and also helped Kazimierz Laski, Irena’s boyfriend - and eventual husband - to acquire forged Aryan papers and a hiding place in their basement in Warsaw.
In the Fall of 1944, with the start of the Warsaw Uprising, the Shelter was closed and Anna was moved to a forced Labor camp, and managed to survive the war. Her daughter Irena remained in Warsaw and was saved due to her forged papers. Kazimierz Laski, was wounded in the battle of Warsaw when he fought in the Ludova Army, yet he survived the war. According to his testimony, Zofia also helped other Jews.
Albertus and Margaretha Haverkort
Albertus and Margaretha Haverkort lived in the city of Sassenheim in the center of Holland. Albertus, who was a member of the local underground movement in Holland helped Jews in many ways including finding hiding places for them, and also hid six Jews in his family’s house and looked after their needs. In June 1943 Albertus was arrested for his underground activities and taken to the Vught concentration camp where he was tortured and killed in August 1944. Of the six Jews whom he hid, only three have been identified: Jo Karp, who stayed there until Albertus’ arrest, and Ida and Abraham Faerber who hid there until the end of the war.
Recently, the Haverkorts’ son Henk found a Certificate of Appreciation from Keren Kayemet L’Israel in his parents’ house which was awarded for a tree that was planted in the Land of Israel immediately after the war in the name of Albertus Haverkort by Abraham Faerber - dedicated to “the help that the Haverkorts provided in those dark days of the Nazi occupation.” Henk decided to try to locate the Faerber family, and with the help of Mrs. Ruth de Jong, placed an ad in the newspaper of the Dutch community in Israel. Alice Lieberman-Faerber, the daughter of Abraham and Ida Faerber read the advertisement and contacted the Haverkort family.
_______________________________________
Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day
(Jerusalem) The central theme for this year’s Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day was The Anguish of Liberation and the Return to Life – Marking 60 Years Since the End of WWII.
The Official Opening Ceremony for Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day took place on Wednesday, 4 May 2005, at 20:00, at Warsaw Ghetto Square, Yad Vashem, Har Hazikaron, Jerusalem.
President of the State of Israel Moshe Katsav, and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon l addressed the participants. Avner Shalev, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate, kindled the Memorial Torch. Noach Flug, Chairman of the Center of Organizations of Holocaust Survivors in Israel, spoke on behalf of the survivors.
During the ceremony, six torches were lit by Holocaust survivors: First torch: Yerakhmiyel Felzenshteyn; second torch: Chaya Avraham; third torch: Dr. Robert M. Finaly; fourth torch: Malka Rosental; fifth torch: Mordechai (Motke) Zeidel; sixth torch Sofia Engelsman. During the ceremony, short videos of the torchlighters’ testimonies were shown (these were produced and directed by Shlomo Hazan).
The official memorial service took place during the ceremony. The Rishon Lezion Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Shlomo Amar recited Psalms; the Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Yonah Metzger recited Kaddish. El Ma’aleh Rahamim was recited by Cantor Asher Hainowitz.
Participants in the ceremony included the conductor and violinist Shlomo Minz, the singer Sarit Hadad, the Ankor Choir, conducted by Dafna ben Yochanan, and the Ephroni Choir conducted by Maya Shavit. Narrative selections: Shmuel Vilozni. The evening’s MC was be Yigal Ravid.
The ceremony was broadcast live on television on Channels 1, 2, and 10 and by radio on Kol Israel and Galei Zahal.
At 22:00, there was a symposium in the auditorium at Yad Vashem entitled “Personal and Collective Memory”. Panel participants were Dr. Eli Ben Gal, Orna Ben David, Rabbi Dr. Binyamin Lau, the author Malka Adler, Prof. Maoz Azriyahu, and Avner Shalev. Immanuel Halperin chaired the panel.
Yad Vashem urges the public to submit names of Pages of Testimony for victims of the Shoah that have not yet been memorialized in Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names. Names can be submitted online at www.yadvashem.org. Similarly, Yad Vashem urges people who have documents, testimonies, photographs, and artifacts from the Shoah to bring them to Yad Vashem where they will be kept for posterity.
_______________________________________
Urgent call to action from Yad Vashem: Register names of Holocaust victims (04-20-05)
Yad Vashem issues an urgent call to action to the Jewish world to join the International 11th hour campaign to gather names of Holocaust victims.
In advance of Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah) on May 5, 2005 and of the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II and VE day, Yad Vashem is issuing an urgent call to action to the Jewish world to join the International 11th hour campaign to gather names of Holocaust victims.
"The memory of millions of Holocaust victims will pass into oblivion as those that remember them leave us," warned Avner Shalev, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate. "Now is the time for the Jewish people to work together to register the unrecorded names."
In fulfilling its mandate to memorialize and preserve the legacy of each individual Jew who died at the hands of the Nazis and their collaborators, Yad Vashem created The Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names. Now available at http://www.yadvashem.org/, the site is a revolutionary milestone in Holocaust remembrance that provides an opportunity to search for names, photographs and brief histories of over three million Holocaust victims, while also enabling the on-line submission of names, photographs and documents.
As many names are still missing, Yad Vashem is calling upon those who possess information on victims that are not recorded in the Database to urgently submit these missing names. Stressing the fact that testimonies and names given in the past to organizations other than Yad Vashem are probably NOT in the Central Database, Yad Vashem recommends conducting a search prior to the submission of names.
While making this appeal to individuals, Yad Vashem also urges Jewish organizations and survivor groups to initiate local name collections campaigns and to encourage their members to join such campaigns.
Victims’ names may be registered by submitting a form known as a Page of Testimony on-line. Paper forms are also available in several languages and may be downloaded from Yad Vashem’s website, or requested at: names.research@yadvashem.org.il; Tel: +972-2-6443582 or Fax: +972-2-6443579
Organizations wishing to mobilize a names’ collection drive should contact: names.outreach@yadvashem.org.il
Since launching the Database in November 2004, the website has recorded over 4 million visitors from over 178 countries around the world. Of the millions who have visited the website, thousands of people have written to Yad Vashem to express their admiration and appreciation for this vital step in Holocaust remembrance. Some, with personal connections to the Shoah, have reconnected with the past; others have discovered
|
