Shalom,
On the eve of the Jewish High Holidays season I would like to take this opportunity to update you on our project, share some inspirational stories and link you to new Holocaust related content on the Yad Vashem website. I thank those of you who have joined us in this historic venture and continue to appeal for assistance in our efforts to commemorate the names of each individual man woman or child who perished during the Shoah.

In a tale spanning across Poland, Belarus, Israel and the US, Avner Yonai, an Israeli businessman living in California, recently connected with a lost relative after discovering Pages of Testimony submitted by his grandfather. Since 2008, Avner has been a names recovery volunteer, meeting with Holocaust survivors, and helping them fill out Pages of Testimony. While conducting a search on the Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names, Avner discovered a living connection, a descendant of his great Aunt Bluma, who was brutally murdered during the Shoah.  Members of the two families recently met for an emotional reunion in Israel.  

Help Promote Awareness of the Urgency of Names Recovery

You can help create a buzz and raise public awareness of the Names Project by publishing our feature article "Naming the Lost Victims of the Shoah". Add a local angle and pitch the story to the local media and Jewish organizations. Please finalize your copy edits with me and inform me where you will try to publish the story. Click here to view the article.  

I would like to remind you to check out our new flash banner ads created for you to post on your websites and to forward to Jewish organizations, temples and Holocaust groups with which you are affiliated to help us promote awareness of the urgency of recovering names of Shoah victims before the names of millions of victims' are lost to us forever. Please note: you must contact us to receive a unique link for the banner of your choice.

Click to see the ads: Banner 1, Banner 2, Banner 3.  

Auschwitz survivor Heinz Kounio, has spent years gathering and documenting the names of 37,500 victims of the Holocaust in order to commemorate the memory of his fellow Salonicans who did not survive. In June, Kounio presented these names to Yad Vashem to be incorporated into the Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names, doubling the number of the names of Holocaust victims from Salonica, Greece currently recorded in the database.

Video Testimony Resource Center

Throughout the Yad Vashem website the voices of Holocaust survivors infuse online exhibitions, historical narratives, teaching units and ceremonies with content and with meaning. Selections of these testimonies have been catalogued where they can be easily accessed by either topic or location. This section will continue to grow as more and more testimonies are added to the website.

Marking the New Year From the Yad Vashem Archives

View a new online exhibition of testimonies, artifacts, photos, greeting cards and prayer books from Yad Vashem’s archival collections, to learn about how Jews marked the high holidays before, during and immediately after the Holocaust.

With best wishes for a happy and peaceful new year.

Cynthia Wroclawski, Manager
The Shoah Victims' Names Recovery Project

Yad Vashem, POB 3477
Jerusalem, 91034 ISRAEL

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