Partisans guarding an airfield in the Naliboki forest, July 1944. Some of the partisans rescued Jews from the forests and protected them from the Germans
One of the most moving features of Yad Vashem’s Holocaust History Museum is the emphasis on the individual. Recently I went on a guided tour of the museum, rather than going through on my own, and hearing the story of the Shoah told using personal items and stories added an emotional dimension that was even more heartbreaking, making the tragedy of the Shoah ever more personal. For many of the personal items - the diaries, the jewelry, the religious items, the displays identify to whom they belonged and tell their stories. Many of the people in the photographs were identified, and since the opening of the museum a number of people have identified themselves, their relatives and acquaintances in the photographs on display in the museum.
Now there is now a new online exhibition “Anonymous No Longer” on the Yad Vashem website that presents several of the photographs on display in the museum, including the names of those who have been recognized.
