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  1. Home
  2. The Artifacts Collection
  3. About the Artifacts Collection in Yad Vashem
  4. Collection and Conservation of Artifacts

Collection and Conservation of Artifacts

Since Yad Vashem’s establishment in the early 1950’s, artifact collection has been part of the process of commemorating the destruction of European Jewry and the Jewish communities obliterated in the Holocaust. In the early years, artifacts were listed in the archives’ accession books together with the documents and photographs that were donated, and they were seen as secondary to the documents and photographs. Only in 1962 was a group of items from the archives defined as a museum collection. This included mostly artworks and a limited number of artifacts. In 1995 this collection was divided into two, forming the Art Collection and the Artifacts Collection.

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Stella Knobel parting from the teddy bear that accompanied her as a child throughout the war, March 2011
Stella Knobel parting from the teddy bear that accompanied her as a child throughout the war, March 2011

Stella Knobel parting from the teddy bear that accompanied her as a child throughout the war, March 2011
Seffi Hanegbi inside the Holocaust History Museum holding the violin he donated that had belonged to the partisan Mottele
Seffi Hanegbi inside the Holocaust History Museum holding the violin he donated that had belonged to the partisan Mottele

Seffi Hanegbi inside the Holocaust History Museum holding the violin he donated that had belonged to the partisan Mottele
Ehud Lev presenting the book he received from the family that hid him, with Haviva Peled-Carmeli, Director of the Artifacts Department, January 2002
Ehud Lev presenting the book he received from the family that hid him, with Haviva Peled-Carmeli, Director of the Artifacts Department, January 2002

Ehud Lev presenting the book he received from the family that hid him, with Haviva Peled-Carmeli, Director of the Artifacts Department, January 2002
Vera Brand donating the doll she received in Karachi when she was on her way to Eretz Israel with the “Teheran Children”, July 2011
Vera Brand donating the doll she received in Karachi when she was on her way to Eretz Israel with the “Teheran Children”, July 2011

Vera Brand donating the doll she received in Karachi when she was on her way to Eretz Israel with the “Teheran Children”, July 2011
Conservator Alexandra Borovok in the textile conservation laboratory of the Artifacts Collection, restoring a doll that belonged to a child confined in the Budapest ghetto, August 2013
Conservator Alexandra Borovok in the textile conservation laboratory of the Artifacts Collection, restoring a doll that belonged to a child confined in the Budapest ghetto, August 2013

Conservator Alexandra Borovok in the textile conservation laboratory of the Artifacts Collection, restoring a doll that belonged to a child confined in the Budapest ghetto, August 2013
Vera (Bader) Weberova donating a collection of family belongings from the Theresienstadt ghetto, Brno, Czech Republic, 1999
Vera (Bader) Weberova donating a collection of family belongings from the Theresienstadt ghetto, Brno, Czech Republic, 1999

Vera (Bader) Weberova donating a collection of family belongings from the Theresienstadt ghetto, Brno, Czech Republic, 1999
Katherina Gruenstein donating personal belongings that had been safeguarded by neighbors after her family was deported to the death camps, Hodonin, Czech Republic, 1999
Katherina Gruenstein donating personal belongings that had been safeguarded by neighbors after her family was deported to the death camps, Hodonin, Czech Republic, 1999

Katherina Gruenstein donating personal belongings that had been safeguarded by neighbors after her family was deported to the death camps, Hodonin, Czech Republic, 1999
Conservator Dodo Shenhav doing restoration work on street lamps from Leszno Street in the Warsaw ghetto, in advance of their display in the Holocaust History Museum in Yad Vashem, March 2005
Conservator Dodo Shenhav doing restoration work on street lamps from Leszno Street in the Warsaw ghetto, in advance of their display in the Holocaust History Museum in Yad Vashem, March 2005

Conservator Dodo Shenhav doing restoration work on street lamps from Leszno Street in the Warsaw ghetto, in advance of their display in the Holocaust History Museum in Yad Vashem, March 2005
Stella Knobel parting from the teddy bear that accompanied her as a child throughout the war, March 2011
Stella Knobel parting from the teddy bear that accompanied her as a child throughout the war, March 2011
Seffi Hanegbi inside the Holocaust History Museum holding the violin he donated that had belonged to the partisan Mottele
Seffi Hanegbi inside the Holocaust History Museum holding the violin he donated that had belonged to the partisan Mottele
Ehud Lev presenting the book he received from the family that hid him, with Haviva Peled-Carmeli, Director of the Artifacts Department, January 2002
Ehud Lev presenting the book he received from the family that hid him, with Haviva Peled-Carmeli, Director of the Artifacts Department, January 2002
Vera Brand donating the doll she received in Karachi when she was on her way to Eretz Israel with the “Teheran Children”, July 2011
Vera Brand donating the doll she received in Karachi when she was on her way to Eretz Israel with the “Teheran Children”, July 2011
Conservator Alexandra Borovok in the textile conservation laboratory of the Artifacts Collection, restoring a doll that belonged to a child confined in the Budapest ghetto, August 2013
Conservator Alexandra Borovok in the textile conservation laboratory of the Artifacts Collection, restoring a doll that belonged to a child confined in the Budapest ghetto, August 2013
Vera (Bader) Weberova donating a collection of family belongings from the Theresienstadt ghetto, Brno, Czech Republic, 1999
Vera (Bader) Weberova donating a collection of family belongings from the Theresienstadt ghetto, Brno, Czech Republic, 1999
Katherina Gruenstein donating personal belongings that had been safeguarded by neighbors after her family was deported to the death camps, Hodonin, Czech Republic, 1999
Katherina Gruenstein donating personal belongings that had been safeguarded by neighbors after her family was deported to the death camps, Hodonin, Czech Republic, 1999
Conservator Dodo Shenhav doing restoration work on street lamps from Leszno Street in the Warsaw ghetto, in advance of their display in the Holocaust History Museum in Yad Vashem, March 2005
Conservator Dodo Shenhav doing restoration work on street lamps from Leszno Street in the Warsaw ghetto, in advance of their display in the Holocaust History Museum in Yad Vashem, March 2005