"Seventy-seven years later, the Holocaust still haunts us. Today, as the world continues to battle expressions of hatred, antisemitism and xenophobia, the significance and lessons of the Holocaust are particularly relevant." Dani Dayan
▪ Days before 27 January 2022, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution condemning Holocaust denial and distortion. The vote was passed 80 years to the day since the notorious Wannsee Conference, at which the Nazi leadership composed what would later be known as the "Final Solution." "Holocaust distortion is so dangerous because, quite plainly, it misrepresents essential facts of history in order to legitimize past and present misdeeds," said Yad Vashem Chairman Dani Dayan. "The Holocaust carries substantial relevance for many vital contemporary issues; denying and distorting its uniqueness and unprecedented aspects is not only detrimental to the memory of the Holocaust but also to that of other atrocities and genocides."
▪ On 27 January, Yad Vashem held its Annual Symposium for the International Diplomatic Corps Serving in Israel, with the participation of Dani Dayan, Israel's President H.E. Mr. Isaac Herzog and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice H.E. Mr. Gideon Sa'ar. Held online due to inclement weather conditions, the 55 ambassadors attending the event heard a lecture on "Holocaust Memory in Challenging Times" and viewed several items in Yad Vashem's Artifacts Collection that will be eventually housed in the new David and Fela Shapell Family Collections Center currently being constructed on the Moshal Shoah Legacy Campus. The event concluded with the testimony of Kindertransport survivor Henry Foner, author of the moving anthology "Postcards to a Little Boy."
▪ Yad Vashem created a mini-site marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day, featuring a variety of online resources for the public to view, share and engage in, including exhibitions, educational resources and its landmark IRemember Wall. This annual online commemorative project, which grows in number of participants year on year, allows individuals to be randomly linked to one of the 4,800,000 Jews murdered in the Holocaust currently registered in Yad Vashem's Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names. The participant's name then appeared on the IRemember Wall – available in six languages – together with the name of the victim of the Holocaust. The user can also choose a specific name of a family member or anyone else from the Names Database with whom they wish to be matched – and then share their matches on their own social media platform.
As in previous years, Facebook used its platform and resources in order to encourage global awareness and outreach of this meaningful project. “This project creates opportunities for people all over the world to remember the victims of the Holocaust in their own language,” explained Iris Rosenberg, Director of Yad Vashem's Communications Division.
“By partnering together with Facebook International, we were able to reach a wider international audience, which is crucial in keeping the memory of the Jewish victims alive and the meanings of the Holocaust relevant to current social and political issues.”
Indeed, many messages were sent on Yad Vashem's Facebook page. Leen Massei from Antwerp wrote about Khaia Sara Noiman, her "adopted victim of the Shoah… she absolutely 'fits' because she was born in the same month and year as my mother. That makes it even more special to me." Silvia Barlassina, an Italian high-school educator thanked Yad Vashem "for providing teachers with this important task to give students; my three classes were involved... everyone had the task to remember one person and to defend their memory and the future of Jewish people... I was moved when I heard one of my Muslim students reading aloud the life of the person she was linked to." "My mother is German," mentioned Brenda Hiller from the UK.
"She lost Jewish friends while still at school. She used to swap sandwiches with one friend… these scars last forever."
▪ Dozens of Yad Vashem's ready2print exhibitions were displayed in community centers and institutions around the world, including locations in the United States, Brazil, Canada, Uruguay, Brazil, Great Britain, France, Spain, Germany, Russia, Rwanda, India and the Ivory Coast. In Indonesia, the opening of the exhibition "Shoah: How Was It Humanly Possible" at the new Holocaust Museum in the Shaar Hashamayim (Gates of Heaven) synagogue was attended by 100 honored guests, including Germany's Ambassador to Indonesia H.E. Ms. Ina Lepel. "Yad Vashem seeks out partners who share our commitment to accurate, fact-based, value-oriented Holocaust remembrance and education," said Director of the International Relations and Projects Department at Yad Vashem's International School for Holocaust Studies' Richelle Budd-Caplan over video link at the opening event. "I hope that we shall develop joint programming, learn together and teach together."
▪ Members of Yad Vashem's senior staff, historians and educators, including Yad Vashem Chairman Dani Dayan, participated in various events, lectures and ceremonies around the globe marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day. These included events in which Yad Vashem partnered with other organizations to educate the public around the globe on Holocaust remembrance: "How to Talk about Auschwitz in 2022: Holocaust Commemoration Through Cinema," with the European Union Delegation in Israel; the #DontBeABystander social media initiative to publicize the actions of the Righteous Among the Nations with the Claims Conference; and a special online commemorative program supported by the Association of Gulf Jewish Communities. Dayan also participated in a number of podcasts on the topics of Holocaust denial and distortion, antisemitism, and the politicization of the Holocaust in today's fractured world.
▪ On 23 January, Dr. Sharon Kangisser-Cohen, Director of the Diana and Eli Zborowski Center for the Study of the Aftermath of the Holocaust at Yad Vashem's International Institute for Holocaust Research, gave an online lecture to a group of international students on child Holocaust survivors and their emotional journeys in the postwar period. The special lecture marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day was part of a course on Investigating Components of the Holocaust run by Prof. Robert Elliott Allinson at Soka University of America.
▪ Yad Vashem's Visual Center held two film screenings to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The first took place on 20 January at the Jerusalem Theater. After opening remarks from EU Ambassador Dimiter Tzantchev and Chairman Dayan, the audience saw Israeli filmmaker Maya Sarfaty’s award-winning documentary Love it Was Not, a moving and thought-provoking film telling the incredible and complicated “love” story of Helena Citron, a young Jewish prisoner in Auschwitz-Birkenau, and Austrian SS officer Franz Wunsch. After the screening, an expert panel – including the director, Citron's niece Miki Marin, Prof. Ilan Avisar of Tel Aviv University's Steve Tisch School of Film and Television and Visual Center Director Liat Benhabib – discussed some of the issues raised by the film, including ways to keep Holocaust remembrance alive and relevant through cinema. On 27 January, the Visual Center coordinated a shared online screening of Memories of the Eichmann Trial, David Perlov's landmark film that was restored by the Visual Center and Perlov family in cooperation with Kan11 the Israel Broadcasting Corporation. The screening was held for three Jewish film festivals – Warsaw, Berlin and Budapest – and was followed by a Zoom discussion with Yael Perlov and Liat Benhabib.
This article originally appeared in the "Yad Vashem Jerusalem Magazine," volume 97.
