Yad Vashem

The Hall of Names containing Pages of Testimony commemorating the millions of Jews who perished in the Holocaust.

Entrance to the museum

Yad Vashem (Hebrew: יד ושם‎‎ ("Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority") is Israel's official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, established in 1953 through the Yad Vashem Law passed by the Knesset, Israel's parliament.

The origin of the name is from a Biblical verse: "And to them will I give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name (Yad Vashem) that shall not be cut off".^[1]

Located in the western region of Mount Herzl on the Mount of Remembrance in Jerusalem, Yad Vashem is a 180-dunam (180,000 m²) complex containing the Holocaust History Museum; memorial sites, such as the Children's Memorial and the Hall of Remembrance; The Museum of Holocaust Art; sculptures, outdoor commemorative sites such as the Valley of the Communities, a synagogue, archives, a research institute, library, publishing house and an educational center, The International School for Holocaust Studies. Yad Vashem honors non-Jews who saved Jews during the Holocaust, at personal risk, as the "Righteous among the Nations".

Yad Vashem is the second most-visited tourist site in Israel, after the Western Wall. It receives some one million visitors annually. Admission is free.

History

Valley of the Communities

On 9 November 2008, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau was appointed by the Israeli government as Chairman of Yad Vashem to replace the late Tommy Lapid.^[2] The idea of establishing a memorial in the historical Jewish homeland for Jewish victims of the Nazi Holocaust was conceived during World War II, as a response to reports of the mass murder of Jews in Nazi-occupied countries. Yad Vashem was first proposed in September 1942, at a board meeting of the Jewish National Fund, by Mordecai Shenhavi, a member of Kibbutz Mishmar Ha'emek.

In August 1945, the plan was discussed in greater detail at a Zionist meeting in London where it was decided to set up a provisional board of Zionist leaders with David Remez as chairman, Shlomo Zalman Shragai, Baruch Zuckerman, and Shenhavi. In February 1946, Yad Vashem opened an office in Jerusalem and a branch office in Tel Aviv and in June that year, convened its first plenary session. In July 1947, the First Conference on Holocaust Research was held at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where further plans were made for Yad Vashem. However, the outbreak in May 1948 of the War of Independence, brought almost all Yad Vashem operations to a standstill for two years. In 1953, the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, unanimously passed the Yad Vashem Law, establishing the Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority.

On 9 November 2008, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau was appointed by the Israeli government as Chairman of Yad Vashem to replace the late Tommy Lapid.^[3]

Location

Yad Vashem train car

The selection of the site on Mount Herzl gave a symbolic message to the new memorial's presentation of the Holocaust. Situated as it was on a site unrelated to Jewish history, the museum sent a message of "rebirth" after destruction. This was in contrast to Israel's first Holocaust museum, the Chamber of the Holocaust, founded in 1948 by the Chief Rabbinate. The latter was deliberately situated on Mount Zion in close proximity to David's Tomb, the symbol of ancient Jewish history and future redemption (through the Messiah, son of David).^[4][5] Thus, the latter museum, whose walls are lined with plaques memorializing over 2,000 Jewish communities destroyed during the Holocaust,^[6][7] portrays the Holocaust as a continuation of the "death and destruction" that plagued Jewish communities throughout Jewish history.^[8]

Overseas visitors

The Eternal Flame

In 1973 the Austrian UN Secretary General, Kurt Waldheim rejected requests to wear a Kippa during a visit to Yad Vashem.^[9]In 2000, German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder visited Yad Vashem as a guest of Israeli Premier Ehud Barak and was invited to turn a handle to boost the Eternal Flame. In a much reported diplomatic gaffe he turned the handle the wrong way and extinguished it.^[10]

In January 2008, Yad Vashem hosted US President George W. Bush. Yad Vashem's International School for Holocaust Studies held the first ever International Youth Congress on the Holocaust in January 2008. Over 100 young people from 62 countries and five continents gathered for a three-day Youth Congress under the patronage of UNESCO. In March 2008, German Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel, accompanied by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and eight ministers from each government, visited Yad Vashem. A memorial ceremony, with the participation of the Chancellor, the Prime Minister, and the Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate Avner Shalev, took place in the Hall of Remembrance.

Pope Benedict XVI visited Yad Vashem on 11 May 2009, with the participation of President Shimon Peres and Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin. Similar to the visit of his predecessor Pope John Paul II in 2000, Pope Benedict XVI's visit took place in the Hall of Remembrance at Yad Vashem, where he participated in a memorial ceremony, delivering an address and greeting six Holocaust survivors and a Righteous Among the Nations.

During 2009–2010, Yad Vashem launched websites in Spanish and Russian that joined the existing ones in English, Hebrew, and Persian. Yad Vashem also created dedicated YouTube channels in English, Hebrew, Spanish, Russian and Arabic. Some 11 million visits were recorded on www.yadvashem.org during 2010.

Goals and objectives

• Education:
  • operating the International School for Holocaust Studies;^[11]
  • providing professional development courses for educators both in Israel and throughout the world;
  • developing age-appropriate study programs, curricula and educational materials for both Israeli and foreign schools, in order to teach students of all ages about the Holocaust
  • holding exhibitions about the Holocaust; and
  • teaching about the Holocaust to the general public.
• Documentation:
  • collecting names of Holocaust victims. The Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names currently holds 4 million names of Holocaust victims, all accessible online. Yad Vashem continues its project of collecting names of Jewish victims from historical documents, postwar commemoration projects and individual memories.^[12]
  • collecting photos, documents and resources regarding the Holocaust. The Yad Vashem Archives house some 138 million pages of Holocaust-related documentation and over 400,000 photographs.
  • collecting Pages of Testimony memorializing Jewish victims of the Holocaust,^[13] Yad Vashem has so far collected 2.2 million Pages of Testimony.
  • recording testimonies of survivors. The Oral History Section of the Yad Vashem Archives currently houses some 102,000 audio, video, and written testimonies.
• Commemoration:
  • preserving the memory and names of the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust and the numerous Jewish communities destroyed during that time; and
  • holding ceremonies of remembrance and commemoration.
• Research and Publications:
  • conducting, encouraging and supporting research regarding the Holocaust;
  • encouraging students and young scholars to research the Holocaust;
  • developing and coordinating symposia, workshops and international conferences and undertaking scholarly projects;
  • publishing research and making it available to the general public; and
  • publishing memoirs, documents, albums and diaries related to the Holocaust.
• Righteous Among the Nations:
  • Honoring non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. Since the 1960s the title of Righteous Among the Nations has been awarded to more than 23,700 individuals.

New museum

View of Jerusalem Forest at the exit of Yad Vashem's Holocaust History Museum.

In 1993, Yad Vashem institute decided to build a larger museum to replace the one built during the 1960s. This was in response to the need to provide a meaningful way to commemorate the Holocaust amid the technological advances of the new millennium, while connecting to younger generations, whose responsibility it will be to pass on the legacy of Holocaust remembrance. Much of the funding was supplied by the producer Stephen Spielberg, following the worldwide success of the motion picture Schindler's List.

The new Holocaust History museum is the largest Holocaust museum in the world. It is carved into the Mount of Remembrance and designed to tell the story of the European Jewish community during the Holocaust. Consisting of a long corridor connected to 10 exhibition halls, each dedicated to a different chapter of the Holocaust, the museum tells the story of the Holocaust from a Jewish perspective. The museum combines the personal stories of 90 Holocaust victims and survivors and presents approximately 2,500 personal items including artwork and letters donated by survivors and others. At the end of the Holocaust History Museum is the Hall of Names, a memorial to the 6 million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. The main hall is composed of two cones: one ten meters high, with a reciprocal well-like cone excavated into the underground rock, its base filled with water. On the upper cone is a display featuring 600 photographs of Holocaust victims and fragments of Pages of Testimony. These are reflected in the water at the bottom of the lower cone, commemorating those victims whose names remain unknown. Surrounding the platform is the circular repository, housing the approximately 2.2 million Pages of Testimony collected to date, with empty spaces for those yet to be submitted—room for six million Pages in all. Attached is a study area with a computerized data bank and where online searches of Holocaust victims' names may be performed on the Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names. Access to the Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names is also available on the Internet at the Yad Vashem website.

Janusz Korczak and the children, memorial

Since the 1950s, Yad Vashem has collected approximately 102,000 audio, video and written testimonies by Holocaust survivors; as the survivors age and are beginning to become less mobile, the program has expanded to visiting survivors in their homes to tape interviews.

On 15 March 2005, the dedication of the new Museum took place. The building was designed by Canadian-Israeli architect, Moshe Safdie. Leaders from 40 states and former Secretary General of the UN Kofi Annan attended the inauguration. President of Israel Moshe Katzav said that the new museum serves as "an important signpost to all of humankind, a signpost that warns how short the distance is between hatred and murder, between racism and genocide."^[14]

Righteous Among the Nations

'Torah', Memorial to the Victims of the Concentration and Extermination Camps Nandor Glid (1924–1997), cast bronze sculpture by Marcelle Swergold

One of Yad Vashem's tasks is to honor non-Jews who risked their lives, liberty or positions to save Jews during the Holocaust. To this end a special independent Commission, headed by a retired Supreme Court Justice, was established. The commission members, including historians, public figures, lawyers and Holocaust survivors, examine and evaluate each case according to a well-defined set of criteria and regulations. The Righteous receive a certificate of honor and a medal and their names are commemorated in the Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations , on the Mount of Remembrance, Yad Vashem. This is an ongoing project that will continue for as long as there are valid requests, substantiated by testimonies or documentation. 449 individuals were recognized during 2010, and as of 2010, more than 23,700 individuals have been recognized as Righteous Among the Nations.

Awards

• In 1973, the Pinkas HaKehillot (Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities) project of Yad Vashem was awarded the Israel Prize, for its special contribution to society and the State.^[15]

• In 2003, Yad Vashem was awarded the Israel Prize, for lifetime achievement and its special contribution to society and the State.^[16][17]

• In September 2007, Yad Vashem received the Prince of Asturias Award for Concord.^[18] The Prince of Asturias Awards is presented in 8 categories. The Award for Concord is bestowed upon the person, persons or institution whose work has made an exemplary and outstanding contribution to mutual understanding and peaceful coexistence amongst men, to the struggle against injustice or ignorance, to the defense of freedom, or whose work has widened the horizons of knowledge or has been outstanding in protecting and preserving mankind's heritage.

• On 25 October 2007, Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev was honored with the Légion d’Honneur for his "extraordinary work on behalf of Holocaust remembrance worldwide." French President Nicolas Sarkozy personally presented Shalev with the award in a special ceremony at the Elysee Palace.

• In 2011 Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev received the City of Jerusalem’s premier award for outstanding lifetime achievement and service to Israel’s capital city.

See also

• List of Israel Prize recipients
• List of Righteous Among the Nations by country
• The Holocaust History Project
• Yad Vashem: Preserving the Past to Ensure the Future

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Yad Vashem

• The official Yad Vashem website

Coordinates: 31°46′27″N 35°10′32″E / 31.77417°N 35.17556°E / 31.77417; 35.17556