25 January 2009
Marking the fourth annual International Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27) adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2005, Yad Vashem will launch a comprehensive new website in Spanish on January 27. The new site, which will be available at www.yadvashem.org, includes a multi-media exhibit of the “Auschwitz Album” with Spanish narration, extensive resources on the Holocaust, including hundreds of photos, documents, last letters, and artifacts, as well as material on Righteous Among the Nations, educational resources, maps, historical information, survivor testimonies, scholarly articles, art, lexicon entries, online exhibits and more.
The new website will be officially launched in Spain, on January 27, 2009 with the participation of Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos at the Palace de Viana in Madrid. The event will take place in the presence of Ana Salomon, Spain’s Ambassador to the 25-country Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research (ITF), and Perla Hazan, Director of the Iberoamerican, Spain and Portugal Desk of the International Relations Department at Yad Vashem. The event is in cooperation with Casa Sefarad Israel.
Yad Vashem is also launching a YouTube Channel in Spanish, joining the English, Hebrew and Arabic channels launched in 2008. Some 900,000 people have visited the three sites thus far.
The theme for Holocaust Remembrance Day in Spain this year is the Righteous Among the Nations. Irena Steinfeldt, Director of the Righteous Among the Nations Department at Yad Vashem will be in Spain for the events, and speak, on January 26th, at the “Lights of Humanity in the Face of the Holocaust: ‘Righteous,’ Rescued and Rescuers” International Seminar at the Instituto Cervantes of Madrid.
This week, there are some 30 educators from 9 South American countries studying at an intensive seminar on Holocaust education at the International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem. The School has developed a number of curriculums and pedagogical tools in Spanish, and continues to run seminars for educators, both Jewish and non-Jewish from the Spanish-speaking world.
“With so many Spanish speakers around the world, we are sure this new website will draw many visitors, eager to learn more about this chapter in history - a chapter that still resonates with us today,” said Avner Shalev, Chairman of Yad Vashem. “As we launch this material in Spanish, it is our hope that the availability of accurate, comprehensive information about the Holocaust will further understanding of the events, providing the tools and information necessary to combat ignorance and denial."
Yad Vashem is the 2007 recipient of the Prince of Asturias Award for Concord.
