What's New

1,200 Educators Attend Conference

Last month, over one thousand educators attended the National Israeli Teachers' Conference conducted by Yad Vashem's International School for Holocaust Studies. The theme of this year's conference was "When the Gates Opened: The Effects of the Holocaust on the Individual, Society, and Thought." The Conference offered teachers the opportunity to explore key philosophical, cultural, educational, and ethical issues related to the aftermath of the Shoah. The conference was opened by Education Minister Naftali Bennett, and included lectures from experts, panels, discussion groups and workshops on the latest pedagogical advances, as well as guided tours of the campus for all the participants.

Workshop Gathers Scholars

The annual workshop of the International Institute for Holocaust Research generously supported by the Gutwirth Family Fund, was dedicated to "'Non-Jewish Jews': Fate and Identity," focusing upon individuals whom the Nazis and their collaborators defined as "partial Jews." Historians from around the world provided insights into the menacing Nazi racist definitions regarding "degrees" of Jewish "identity". Participants at the workshop, from Austria, Croatia, Germany, Italy, Israel, the Netherlands, Poland, Serbia, the UK and the US, presented a broad variety of aspects of the topic, including definitions, self-perceptions and rescue attempts.  The new research presented shed light on this largely unknown aspect of the Shoah.

Spotlight on the Web

New Community in Online Exhibition

The online exhibition "Here Their Stories Will be Told…" highlights the Jewish life that flourished in different communities prior to WWII and the devastation they encountered during the Holocaust.  Nieśwież is the newest community added to the exhibition. Between the two World Wars, Nieśwież was part of Poland, situated in the Nowogródek district in the East of the country, close to the border with the Soviet Union. Jews started to settle in Nieśwież during the 16th century, and there was a Jewish community in there for close to 200 years until it was destroyed during the Holocaust. The online platform gives excellent expression to texts, archival photographs, maps and video testimonies, shedding light on the cultural, educational and communal life that thrived there between the two world wars. Thus far, the compelling and tragic histories of nine different communities that were decimated during the Holocaust are included in "Here Their Stories will be Told."

Recent Events

Visual Center Receives Oscar

On July 22, 2015, Croatian film producer and Holocaust survivor Branko Lustig presented the Oscar awarded to him by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for Schindler's List, Best Picture of 1993, to Yad Vashem. The Oscar is to be displayed in Yad Vashem's Visual Center – the world's digital film library for Holocaust related films. An emotional Lustig explained how as a young survivor, he used the medium of film to try to tell what he had witnessed. "I talk and talk, so the younger generations will be aware and try to stop intolerance and racism wherever they see it," he remarked. "This Oscar is all the victims and the survivors - all that they went through. It represents all the people who were killed and asked us to tell their stories."

Yad Vashem @ the International Jewish Genealogy Conference 2015

Yad Vashem played an active partnering role in the 35^th annual International Conference on Jewish Genealogy (held once every decade in Israel), which took place on 6-10 July in Jerusalem. The conference program, attended by some 800 researchers and Jewish genealogy enthusiasts from around the world, included nine presentations by Yad Vashem speakers, guided assistance and access to Yad Vashem's databases and an information booth at the exhibition. An optional day at Yad Vashem offered some 45 participants a special menu of activities, including Holocaust research in the Library Reading Room, tours of the Museum Complex, exhibits, a behind-the-scenes tour of the Archives and lectures on a variety of Shoah-related topics.

New Publications

Remembering Regina

My Journey to Freedom

by Fanny Bienenfeld Lust
$24 $18
The book describes the life of Fanny and her family in Europe and their remarkable escape, orchestrated by Fanny’s mother, Regina. Fanny and her family moved from Tarnow, Poland, to Berlin in 1930, but returned to Krakow shortly before WWII began. A series of events set in motion the family’s flight from Europe. Their escape route took the Bienenfelds across several countries and oceans on their quest to find safety. By air, land, and sea, the family crisscrossed their way to freedom; first to Trieste and Genoa, Italy, then to Tangier, Morocco, back to Seville and on to Lisbon, and, finally, to the U.S.A.  Available for purchase in Yad Vashem's online store.

Tin Soldier in a Cardboard Box

A Young Boy in Hiding: Austria-Belgium-France

by Ari Livne
$24 $18
Born in Vienna, Henri's (Ari Livne) life changed irrevocably when he was eight years old. After escaping with his parents to Belgium and several years of avoiding arrest, Henri was taken in by "Aunt Angele", a local woman living in Nazi occupied Brussels. Henri adopted a false identity as a French-speaking Christian boy. His knack of staying calm under pressure, his acting abilities and his improvisation skills helped him escape from near-fatal traps time and again. With psychological depth and unrelenting tension, the complex relationship between the author's adopted and real identities comes to the fore in the descriptions of his daily fight for survival. Available for purchase in Yad Vashem's online store.

News Highlights

The goal is to plant the seed, in Israel HaYom
Yad Vashem marks diversity, bravery of Red Army Jews, in the Times of Israel
World Jewry remembers Samuel Pisar, ‘moral voice of a generation’, in The Jerusalem Post
At Jerusalem Genealogy Confab, Passion for Past Unites Experts and Novices, in The Algemeiner
Nicholas Winton, the savior of Jewish children who stayed silent for a half-century, in The Minneapolis Star Tribute (AP)
A Jewish Woman's Plea for Help Comes to Life — 76 Years Later, in The Forward
Museum of the Jewish Soldier in WWII to hold ceremony in Latrun to mark 70th anniversary of end of WWII, on EJP
Studying the Holocaust, in Cleveland Banner.com

With Your Support

My Father's Holocaust Secret

"This story would never have come to light without the power of the Yad Vashem online archives."
When Aryeh Goldberg passed away, he left his son Tzachi a watch. Hidden away inside the box, Tzachi found a picture of two women. Tzachi decided to search the Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names, where he found information about the women and their connection to his family. For the full story click here.
Even today – 70 years after the liberation – new details are coming to light about the victims of the Holocaust and their stories. This Rosh Hashanah we encourage you to take a moment and remember those who were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators and partner with us to commemorate the victims, pay tribute to the survivors and educate future generations.