Yad Vashem - 2006
Yad Vashem Alarmed by Continued Iranian Holocaust Denial
“Holocaust Denial: Paving the Way to Genocide” Symposium at Yad Vashem Thursday with Participation of Diplomatic Corps
(December 10, 2006 - Jerusalem) Yad Vashem is following with increasing concern Iran’s continued Holocaust denial, and particularly its latest attempt to paint its extremist agenda with a scholarly brush. The Iranian government’s pseudo-academic conference, "Review of the Holocaust: Global Vision” is an effort to mainstream Holocaust denial and must be unequivocally rejected.
On Thursday, December 14, 2006, Yad Vashem will hold a symposium with the participation of the diplomatic corps: “Holocaust Denial: Paving the Way to Genocide” chaired by Prof. David Bankier, Head of the International Institute for Holocaust Studies. Yad Vashem Chairman of the Directorate Avner Shalev will open the session, and Prof. Yehuda Bauer, Academic Advisor to Yad Vashem, Yigal Carmon, President, MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute), and Holocaust survivor Rita Weiss, many of whose relatives were killed in the Holocaust, will speak. Chairman of the Council Joseph (Tommy) Lapid will offer concluding remarks.
The United Nations, and many countries in the world, will mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day next month, recognizing the importance of Holocaust remembrance as a safeguard against the breakdown of the basic human values that underpin our civilization. The dismissal of the veracity of the Holocaust and its legacy represents a clear rejection of those values. Memory of the Holocaust helps serve as a warning and a hindrance to those who might consider or advocate genocide. Those who threaten genocide therefore seek to deny the Holocaust in order to remove this obstacle from their path. The international community must act to prevent genocidal intentions from becoming genocidal capabilities.
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Siblings Reunite 61 Years After the Holocaust
(September 17, 2006 - Jerusalem) Two siblings have found each other six decades after the Holocaust, thanks to Yad Vashem’s Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names at www.yadvashem.org.
The sister’s grandchildren searched the Database and found a Page of Testimony filled out in memory of their grandmother. The Page was filled out by one of her brothers who believed that she had been killed in the Holocaust. Through the Page, the grandchildren were able to find their grandmother’s brother.
The brother arrived from Canada to meet his sister who lives in Israel, and will remain here to celebrate Rosh Hashanah with his new family.
Tomorrow, September 18, 2006 brother and sister, accompanied by family members, will come to Yad Vashem, at 11:30. The event will take place in the Lecture Hall of the International Research Institute of Yad Vashem (Administration and Research Building).
The Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names contains some 3 million names of Holocaust victims, 2 million of the names come from Pages of Testimony, and remainder are from archival lists. Available at www.yadvashem.org over 10 million people have visited the website since the Database went online in November 2004.
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Righteous Among the Nations Ceremony Tuesday at Yad Vashem
Four Righteous from Ukraine Posthumously Recognized in Presence of Survivors
(July 17, 2006 - Jerusalem) On Tuesday, July 18, 2006, four Righteous Among the Nations from Ukraine will be posthumously recognized at a ceremony at Yad Vashem. The ceremony will take place in the Garden of the Righteous at 11:30, in Hebrew and Russian. Attending the ceremony will be survivors who were rescued by the Righteous. The medals and certificates will be presented by Natan Eitan, Director General of Yad Vashem, and Judge Jacob Turkel, Chairman of the Commission for the Designation of the Righteous.
Rescue Stories
Rescuer: Nestor Sniadanko
Survivor: Antonia Gruber
In 1963, Antonia Gruber was a university student in Lvov, where she became friendly with a group of Ukrainian students, among them Nestor Sniadanko. Antonia and Nestor stayed in contact even after the war began, and Lvov fell to the Germans on 30 June 1941.
Nestor continued to visit the Gruber family even after the pogroms of July 1941, and despite the generally antisemitic sentiment in the city. After Antonia’s father Shimon Gruber was murdered, Nestor protected the family from wild gangs in the city. He brought information and food to Antonia, her mother Blanca, her brothers Yosef and Marcel, and to a grandmother. He continued to provide for them after they were moved into the ghetto.
After the August 1942 aktion when thousands of Jews were killed, Antonia escaped the German factory she was working in, and arrived at Nestor’s apartment in a upscale Polish neighborhood in Lvov. Nestor greeted her warmly and convinced a cousin who was living in the apartment as well to welcome their guest. Despite the risks, Antonia remained in Nestor’s apartment, and hid behind a large pantry anytime the doorbell rang. Nestor also agreed to temporarily hide another young Jewish woman, a friend of Antonia, until he found her an alternate hiding place. Antonia also discovered that Nestor, who was working in a government food rationing office, provided food to a Polish family who was sheltering a Jewish child. In July 1944 the Red Army liberated Lvov. In 1945 Nestor and Antonia married. About a year later the couple left Ukraine. In a DP camp in Germany, on their way to Israel, their son Fred was born, and Nestor changed his name to Yosef Gruber. Yosef Gruber (nee Nestor Sniadanko) passed away in 1979. Antonia Gruber will accept the medal and certificate on her late husband’s behalf.
Rescuer: Frania Dedek
Survivor: Binyamin Blitzer
Binyamin Blitzer was born in 1938 in Nadvorna in Poland (today Ukraine), to Dov Berl Blitzer and Tema Kramer Blitzer. The Blitzers were a wealthy family, and owned a number of apartments for rent and a leather goods factory. Following his mother’s death, Binyamin was cared for by his father, sister Sonia and grandmother.
In June 1941, Nadvorna was occupied, and amongst the first victims was Dov Berl Blitzer. In September all the Jews were closed into a ghetto. Frania Dedek, who worked in the Blitzer home, stayed in their apartment and would send food and other necessities into the ghetto for the family, via a local Ukrainian. In December 1941, the grandmother, using the Ukrainian as a go between, asked Frania if she would take Binyamin out of the ghetto. Sonia chose to stay behind with her grandmother; they both were killed.
Frania took Binyamin and escaped with him. For many months they wandered through the forests in the area of Nadvorna and Skalat, constantly changing their hiding places. At night Frania would hide Binyamin and go on her own to search for food scraps. A few times, she was able to find work on local farms, and hid Binyamin in nearby pigsties or fields, while she worked. Each time Binyamin was discovered they would flee to the forest and search for new hiding places. During this time, Frania treated Binyamin as her own son. At the end of the war, when the Red Army liberated Skalat, Frania took another Jewish orphan under her wing, a boy named Eliezer Art. Together with the two boys, Frania arrived at a DP camp in Germany, where they were able to board the Exodus, which was forced back to Germany by the British. In February 1948, Frania immigrated to Israel with the two boys. Frania sent Binyamin to a religious school, believing this to be the wish of his parents. Frania converted to Judaism and married Holocaust survivor Avraham Bielski. Frania Bielski (nee Dedek) passed away in 1986 at the age of 77. Binyamin Blitzer will accept the medal and certificate on his late adoptive mother’s behalf.
Rescuers: Tatyana Minkovskaya and Nikifor Kurochka
Survivor: Nelli Monogova - Zaslavskaya
Nelli Zaslavaskaya was born in November 1940 to Vasiliy Monogov and Sarah Koplev in Chegla, a village in Turkmenistan. At the beginning of World War II, Sarah, a midwife, took Nelli to Cherson in Ukraine, where Sarah’s family lived, while Vassily joined the army.
In August 1941, the Germans captured Charson and began killing the Jews there. Sarah, Nelli and a group of other Jews found a hiding place in their basement; but someone informed on them and they were captured. As the Germans lead them to their deaths, Tatyana Mikovskaya left her apartment, which was in the same building. She saw the group and recognized Sarah. As Sarah passed by Tatyana, she handed her her baby Nelli and asked her to save her daughter. Tatyana hurried home, hid the baby, and took care of her as her own child.
In 1943, Tatyana was deported with Nelli to forced labor in Germany. On the ship that carried her and hundreds of other deportees, Tatyana met Nikifor, whom she would eventually marry. Near the Bessarabian shore, the boat was air bombed. Some of the passengers, among them Tatyana, Nikifor and Nelli, were able to reach shore and escape. For many months, the three wandered in Bessarabia, suffering cold, hunger and surviving from handouts until at the end of that year they returned to Charson. In March 1944, the Red Army liberated the town.
Throughout the war, Nelli was taken care of by Tatyana and Nikifor, who treated her as their own daughter. After the war, since none of Nelli’s relations arrived to claim her, Tatyana and Nikifor formally adopted her. Nelli stayed with them until their deaths. Nikifor passed away in 1974; Tatyana died in 1989. In 2002, Nelli immigrated to Israel with her children and grandchildren. Nelli will receive the medal and certificate on behalf of her late adoptive parents.
More information about the Righteous Among the Nations program is available at www.yadvashem.org/righteous/index_righteous.html
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Educators conference at Yad Vashem
“Teaching the Holocaust to Future Generations”
Over 300 participants from 21 countries to participate in Fifth International Conference on Holocaust Education at Yad Vashem
(June 26, 2006 - Jerusalem) The Fifth International Conference for Educators, “Teaching the Holocaust to Future Generations” opens tonight, Monday, June 26, 2006, at Yad Vashem. The Conference is taking place in partnership with Oranim Educational Initiatives, and with the generous support of The Asper International Holocaust Studies Program, the Asper Foundation, Winnipeg, Canada.
The opening ceremony will take place at 19:30 at the Family Plaza at the International School for Holocaust Studies. Rabbi Michael Melchior, MK, Chairman of the Education, Culture and Sports Committee, the Knesset, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate Avner Shalev and President of Oranim Educational Initiatives Shlomo (Momo) Lifshitz will participate.
The three-day conference includes lectures in plenary sessions, discussion groups and workshops that will explore and reflect on varied approaches to Holocaust education. The conference will focus on interdisciplinary approaches to teaching the Holocaust, and the Holocaust in the context of genocide. Some 300 educators will participate from 21 countries - including China, Greece, Venezuela, Belgium, Australia, Romania, Hungary, South Africa, Poland, Germany and the United States. Experts on the Holocaust and education from leading institutions around the world will give the lectures and lead the discussion groups.
“Unlike historical conferences, the International Conference focuses on the future. The conference will provide a forum for educators from around the world to participate in a wide-ranging and enriching dialogue on Holocaust education,” said Avner Shalev, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate. “We believe that an interdisciplinary approach to Holocaust education will lead to a deeper and more extensive knowledge of the Shoah.”
“As the survivor generation grows smaller and there are fewer eyewitnesses, the job of the educator in ensuring the memory of the Holocaust intensifies, this is why Oranim Educational Initiatives has set a goal to reach as many educators as possible and to give them practical tools, enriching their abilities to pass on the lessons of the Holocaust,” said Shlomo (Momo) Lifshitz, President of Oranim Educational Initiatives.
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