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RECENT VISITS TO YAD VASHEM
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President of Romania H.E. Mr. Traian
Basescu (center) visited Yad Vashem on 1 June,
accompanied by Israel’s Minister of Improvement
of Government Services Michael Eitan (left).
They were guided through the Holocaust History
Museum by Alexander Avraham, Director of
the Hall of Names (right).
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Prime Minister of Hungary Gordon Bajnai
(left) visited Yad Vashem on 23 June guided
by Chava Baruch (right) of the International
School for Holocaust Studies.
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Prime Minister of Togo Gilbert Fossoun
Houngbo (center) was guided through the
Holocaust History Museum on 5 May by Dr.
Alain Michel of the International School for
Holocaust Studies (right).
New Documents from
Germany Aid Names
Recovery
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The International Commission for the
ITS (International Tracing Service) recently
transferred to Yad Vashem an additional
package of documents copied from its collection,
among them some 180,000 “CM1” (care and
maintenance) questionnaires from German
DP camps. The documents, presented to Yad
Vashem delegates at the ITS Directorate's annual
meeting in London in May, provide information
on the fate of Jews and non-Jews rescued from
concentration and forced labor camps.
Yad Vashem also received copies of some
55,000 lists of Holocaust survivors, compiled
after WWII mostly by Jewish organizations
from different countries. The documents helped
the Tracing Service clarify individual fates and
reunite families. The remaining documents
from DP camps in other European countries
as well as emigration lists will follow at the
end of the year, once digitization of that part
of the ITS collection at Bad Arolsen, Germany
has been completed.
At the beginning of June, the Yad Vashem
Archives hosted an extraordinary international
expert workshop dealing with the effect of
opening the ITS collection on Yad Vashem's
Names Recovery Project. The workshop, led by
Director of the Hall of Names Alexander Avraham,
was attended by experts in Holocaust Victims’
Names Recovery and computerization projects
from Holocaust memorials throughout Europe,
including Auschwitz, Bergen Belsen, Dachau,
Flossenbuerg, Majdanek and Mauthausen, as
well as representatives from Yad Vashem and
Holocaust museums and organizations in France,
Germany, Austria, Poland, Belgium, the Czech
Republic and the US.
“The Archives Division and the Hall of
Names are leading and centralizing the location
of information and documents pertaining to the
fate of Holocaust victims,” explains Director of
the Yad Vashem Archives, Dr. Haim Gertner.
“The additional documents we received from the
ITS collection will help complete some of the
missing information. The mission of locating the
information is becoming more complex as years
pass, and necessitates international cooperation.
The Recording the Names expert workshop is one
of the most important forums for coordinating
and deepening these vital efforts.”
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On 14 May,
Chairman of Germany’s
Conference of Bishops, Archbishop Dr. Robert
Zollitsch (center) visited Yad Vashem and
participated in a memorial ceremony in the Hall
of Remembrance. Pictured carrying the wreath:
H.E. Dr. Harald Kindermann,
Ambassador of
Germany to Israel (left), and Veronika Nickel
(right), who is completing a two-year internship
in the Righteous Among the Nations Department,
sponsored by the German Jesuits.
At the conclusion of his visit, the Bishop
spoke of the importance of Holocaust
remembrance and the Church’s role in educating
the next generations to develop a solid historical
conscience. Noting the joint roots of both
religious faiths he said, “I would expressly
encourage groups of Christian pilgrims to visit
Yad Vashem during their stay in Israel.”
■
President of El Salvador H.E. Mr. Elías
Antonio Saca González
and his wife visited
Yad Vashem on 6 May.
■
Yang Jiechi, Foreign Minister of the
People’s Republic of China (center), visited Yad
Vashem on 23 April and was guided through
the Holocaust History Museum by the Director
of the Yad Vashem Libraries Dr. Robert Rozett
(second from right).
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On 9 May,
Canadian Minister of Citizenship,
Immigration and Multiculturalism Jason
Kenney visited Yad Vashem, where he met
with Yad Vashem Director General Nathan
Eitan and Director of the International School
for Holocaust Studies Dorit Novak.
News
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news
4 May
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“To Every Community There is a
Name” – Evening of memories and liturgical
poetry at the Wolyn Community Hall in
Givatayim dedicated to the Balkan Sephardic
communities destroyed in the Holocaust.
The audience was addressed by a number
of distinguished guests, including the fifth
President of the State of Israel and Chairman
of the National Authority for Ladino Culture
Yitzhak Navon (pictured).
10 May
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Some 1,000 veterans, partisans,
underground fighters and representatives of
the Association for Demobilized Soldiers took
part in the
official state ceremony marking
the Allied victory over Nazi Germany, in the
presence of Minister of Immigrant Absorption
Sofa Landver, Mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat,
Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate Avner
Shalev, organization heads and military attaches
of the Allied Nations.
14 June
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Hundreds of Holocaust survivors
and their families, IDF soldiers and youth
movement members took part in the
gathering
of former residents of the Dorohoi district,
Romania, and the Romanian Association in
Israel at the Dorohoi Martyrs’ Forest to mark
69 years since the beginning of the Holocaust
in Romania, the pogrom in Dorohoi on 30 June
1940 and the deportation of the region’s Jews to
the death camps in Transnistria. The ceremony
took place in the presence of Minister Yossi
Peled, Romanian Ambassador to Israel H.E. Mr.
Edward Iosiper and organization heads.
23 June
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General Meeting of the Aloumim
Association, including a tour of the Museum
of Holocaust Art. Among the distinguished
guests was Colette le Baron, Council General
of France in Israel.
1 April
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Ceremony posthumously honoring
Righteous Among the Nations Wessel and
Ankje Ruwersma of the Netherlands who
rescued Jews in the Holocaust. The award was
presented to their grandchildren, Daniel Postma
and Ankje van Keulen-Postma.
Left to right: Dutch Embassy representative
Mr. Jeroen van Rijckevorsel, Daniel Postma,
survivor Yehudit Levi, Ankje van Keulen-
Postma and family members in the Garden of
the Righteous.
20 April
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Some 2,500 survivors, senior
government officials, members of the diplomatic
corps, youth movement members from Israel and
abroad and IDF soldiers filled Warsaw Ghetto
Square for the
official state ceremony opening
Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance
Day. Top: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
addresses the audience. Bottom: Violinist
David Strongen (left) played the violin that
belonged to the child partisan Motele, who was
killed in the Holocaust, together with fellow
“Musicians of Tomorrow” Michael Faigin and
Mark Karlinsky.
Events: April – June 2009
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Towards the end of each academic year, the
International Institute for Holocaust Research
at Yad Vashem grants prizes to Master’s degree
students and Doctoral candidates enrolled in
Israeli universities to encourage Holocaust
research. The awards are distributed from
endowments established by individuals and
organizations in memory of relatives and
Holocaust victims.
Prizes for the 2008/9 academic year were
conferred on 25 May during a ceremony at Yad
Vashem. PhD candidate Martine Sadeh from the
University of Haifa addressed the audience on
the subject of the Jewish community in Algeria
under the French Vichy regime (1940-1943),
and in the period until the end of French
colonial rule in Algeria in 1962. In her thesis,
Sadeh describes the significant role of the
Jewish educational system, founded during
the war, as an agent for social change.
Yad Vashem
Research Prizes 2008/9
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PhD student Yoram Haimi (left) is presented with a
Research Prize by Yad Vashem Chief Historian Prof.
Dan Michman (right).