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Yad Vashem’s annual theme for 2012 focuses on Jewish solidarity during the Holocaust. During this period, Jewish solidarity was directly threatened and in many places severely weakened as a direct result of the extremely harsh Nazi policies. Community awareness, which had existed in various towns and cities throughout Europe for hundreds of years, was torn asunder. With the anti-Jewish edicts in Nazi germany, through the growing persecution throughout Europe, with ghettoization and through the deportations to the camps, the community suffered terrible and tragic blows. Social units were facing unimaginable hardships, as families were being torn apart, and hunger brought about a struggle to survive. Random killings and deportation split community units and friendships. Living in the ghettos and camps meant daily first-hand exposure to hunger, disease, tortuous work and physical and mental hardship.
And despite all this we find during this period instances of remarkable humanity, attempts to preserve some level of solidarity despite the extreme situation Jews were facing. We must remember that merely assisting someone with a piece of bread or a spot of warmth was no trivial matter – as the struggle for self-survival was difficult enough, and assistance often carried the penalty of death – and nevertheless we have documented cases of clandestine organization, spiritual resistance, and simple person-to-person acts of kindness. This webpage collects material touching on this important educational topic.
Lesson Plans
- Compassion within the Ghetto Walls
- The Synagogue on Praska Street
- Spiritual Resistance during the Holocaust
- Jewish Children in the Holocaust as Reflected in Their Diaries
- “Until Then I Had Only Read about These Things in Books..” – The Story of Uri Orlev
- I Wanted to Fly Like a Butterfly
Interviews
- The Story of a Two-Thousand Year Old Jewish Community in Ioannina, Greece
- “Being Together Certainly Saved Me” – Interview with Hedi Solzbach
- “This is Not the Story of Someone Else” - Interview with Miriam Ron
Testimonies
- Yaacov Schwartzberg about the Cultural Life in the Vilna Ghetto
- Dora Love about Her Family in the Ghetto
- Testimonials Films Series
Ceremonies
- The Image of Humanity in the Shadow of Death
- Witnesses and Testimony
- "Shattered and Broken"
- Auschwitz: The Final Stop
Articles
- "What We Value" - Spiritual Resistance during the Holocaust
- The Female Couriers during the Holocaust
- “It Happened There Too”: Sephardic Jews in Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and Greece
- “Family Gave Them Strength”: The Family Unit during the Holocaust
- “Hidden Children”
- “They Each Made a Difference”: Women and Resistance during the Holocaust
- Felix Nussbaum: Self Portraits of a Jew in Turmoil
Artifacts
- A Flag from a Jewish Youth Movement in Germany
- A Brit Milah (Circumcision Ceremony) Kit from a Greek Jew
- The Diary of Yitzchak Rudashevski
- Artifacts Saved by Zizi Lichtenstein's Mother
- A Yellow Star of David Button which Bulgarian Jews were Forced to Wear in 1941
Exhibitions
YouTube Channel