26 January 2014
From Jerusalem to Paris, Ghana to Singapore, Yad Vashem educators, researchers and historians will be traveling throughout the world on Monday, January 27, for various events, lectures, seminars and ceremonies commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Yad Vashem, Jerusalem
Among the events to be held on International Holocaust Remembrance Day at Yad Vashem are a presentation of a Certificate of Recognition by UNESCO (26.1) marking the inclusion of the Pages of Testimony Memorial Collection in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. On Monday, January 27, the annual ceremony will be held in the Hall of Remembrance and Yad Vashem Auditorium commemorating the deportation of Italian Jews during the Shoah. Also on Monday, James Rawley, the United Nations Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, along with heads of various UN agencies in Israel will participate in memorial ceremony in the Hall of Remembrance, and visit the "I Am My Brother's Keeper – 50 Years of Honoring Righteous Among the Nations” exhibition. Media who wish to cover the memorial ceremony should arrive in the Hall of Remembrance by 14:15.
International Holocaust Remembrance Day on the Web
A great deal of new material is available on Yad Vashem’s website, including special new mini-sites, as well as new exhibitions, material for educators and more. The Shoah new permanent exhibition in block 27, curated by Yad Vashem, at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum mini-site is now available in German and Spanish. Among the new exhibitions is an in-depth look at the Valley of Communities, featuring rare footage of prewar Jewish life in Europe, testimonies, photos and information about the destruction of various communities, and a new Holocaust Education Video Toolbox featuring short presentation from experts on a variety of issues including teaching the Holocaust, everyday life in the Warsaw Ghetto and basic information about the Holocaust, as well as special new exhibition exploring the Yad Vashem Artifacts collection.
On Facebook, the IRemember Wall, offers users an opportunity to personally remember individual victims of the Holocaust, by linking with names of victims from the Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names. Yad Vashem has thus far documented the names of 4.3 million of the 6 million men, women and children murdered in the Holocaust. Efforts continue to recover the missing names. You can view a new short clip about the efforts to recover the names here. (To submit names, please e-mail: names.outreach@yadvashem.org.il).
International Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel
On Sunday, January 26, Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev and Chief Historian Prof. Dina Porat will speak at the Israeli government cabinet meeting marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day. On Monday evening, in cooperation with the Yad Vashem Visual Center, Claude Lanzmann's new film "The Last of the Unjust" will premiere in 12 cities across Israel with the director attending the premiere at the Jerusalem Theatre.
International Holocaust Remembrance Day in Poland
On January 27, Shalev will be joining the Israeli delegation of some 60 Members of Knesset, 6 ministers and 24 Holocaust survivors, guiding them through the New Permanent Exhibition SHOAH, curated by Yad Vashem, in Block 27 at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. He will then address the joint Israeli-Polish parliamentary “Reflections on Auschwitz: Remembering the past, looking to the future.”
International Holocaust Remembrance Day Elsewhere in Europe
Dr. Eyal Kaminka, Director of the International School for Holocaust Studies of Yad Vashem will lead a panel discussion, in Paris, on pedagogical research in Holocaust education at a conference sponsored by UNESCO. In Vienna, the United Nations Information Service will host the exhibition of the 16 top submissions of the "Keeping the Memory Alive – Journeys through the Holocaust" International Poster Design Competition. The competition, coordinated by Yad Vashem, has proven to be an effective vehicle for Holocaust remembrance and will take place in cooperation with the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), London Jewish Cultural Centre, United Kingdom, European Shoah Legacy Institute, Czech Republic, 2014 Canadian IHRA Chairmanship and the Holocaust and UN Outreach Programme, and at the UN Commission of Human Rights in Geneva with Professor Dan Michman, Head of the International Institute for Holocaust Research. In Liechtenstein Yad Vashem’s traveling exhibition: "With Me Here are Six Million Accusers - The Eichmann Trial in Jerusalem” will open at the National Museum of Liechtenstein. Dr. David Silberklang, Senior Historian at the International Institute for Holocaust Research and Editor-in-Chief of Yad Vashem Studies will present a number of talks in London. As part of Yad Vashem’s goal to gather all Holocaust related material and make it available to the public, Yad Vashem recently signed an agreement with San Marino that will allow Yad Vashem to copy material related to the Holocaust period in San Marino.
International Holocaust Remembrance Day Asia & Africa
Lectures and ceremonies will also be held in cooperation with the Israeli Foreign Ministry in Myanmar, Singapore and Vietnam with Dr. Joel Zisenwine, Director of the Deportation Database Project; in Ghana with Nannie Beckman of the Righteous Among the Nations Department; in South Africa with Dr. Robert Rozett, Director of the Yad Vashem Libraries.
