A new exhibition displaying the nationwide process of collection, research, registration and digitization to rescue personal Holocaust-related items opened Sunday at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem.
The event, titled "Gathering the Fragments – Behind the Scenes of the Campaign to Rescue Personal Items from the Holocaust", marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day and is attended by Holocaust survivors whose personal items are displayed in the exhibition.
"Since the 'Gathering the Fragments' campaign began, about two years ago, thousands of Israelis have decided to part from personal items close to their hearts, and through them share the memory of their dear ones who were murdered in the Holocaust, » said Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev.
So far, some 71,000 items have been donated to Yad Vashem, during the campaign, of which only a few are displayed in the exhibition.
Through these examples, Yad Vashem has tried to bring to light items whose stories both explain the individual story and provide testimony to join the array of personal accounts that make up the narrative of the Holocaust.
Exhibition Curator Michael Tal explained that « the majority of items donated to Yad Vashem during the campaign have come via second- or third-generation descendants of the survivors and others who possess items from their families in Europe. Therefore, most of the information we receive about the items is, at best, only partial. The exhibition therefore showcases the research work carried out at Yad Vashem in order to reconstruct the full story behind each item. We are committed to learning as much as possible about everything that comes to us, and to sharing new insights with the greater public."
The campaign was launched in 2011 by Yad Vashem in cooperation with the National Heritage Program at the Israeli Prime Minister's Office, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry for Senior Citizens.
Since then, a great variety of documents, certificates, diaries, photographs, artifacts and artworks from the Holocaust era that were in the homes of private individuals in Israel have been given to Yad Vashem for safekeeping.
« This is an 11th-hour rescue campaign to collect both the items as well as their stories, so that they will preserved forever, » Tal said.
Withing the framework of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Yad Vashem has a number of traveling exhibitions on display around the world. Yad Vashem historians, researchers and educators are participating in events across Europe, and in Israel, the United States, Myanmar, Vietnam, Canada, and Venezuela.
On January 27, 1945, Soviet forces liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp and discovered the largest Nazi killing center in Europe.
Auschwitz has become a symbol of the Holocaust, representing the depths of man's inhumanity to man.
In November 2005, the United Nations passed a resolution to mark January 27 as an international day of commemoration to honor the victims of the Holocaust, and urged member states to develop educational programs to impart the memory of this tragedy to future generations.
Eighteen governments have legislated January 27 as an annual Holocaust Memorial Day and Holocaust remembrance ceremonies will be organized on the international, national, regional and local levels, including in universities and schools.
The European Parliament, the EU’s legislative body, marked earlier this week for the first time officially International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The 2013 observance is built around the theme "Rescue during the Holocaust: The Courage to Care", honoring those who risked their own lives to save Jews and others from near certain death under the Nazi regime during WWII in Europe.
The European Parliament paid tribute to Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg who saved thousands of Jews in Hungary during the Holocaust. A new Raoul Wallenberg room was inaugurated by EU Commissioner Cecilia Malmström in the parliament’s building in Brussels.
On Friday, a ceremony remembering the victims of Nazism on the 68th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz was held in the United Nations General Assembly Hall in New York, in the presence of Holocaust survivors, their families and severalUN delegates.
The ceremony opened with a moment of silence followed by a taped message from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who promised that the UN, founded out of the principles of humanity highlighted by the Holocaust, would “never again” let such an atrocity occur.
“Let us be inspired by those who had the courage to care,” Ban said.
Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor reminded hose in attendance that, from the very same venue in which he stood, leaders of nation states have denied a moment in history that included the documented, systematic killing of more than 6 million Jews.
“We live in a world filled with prejudice and violence. A world in which anti-Semitism is sponsored, taught and spread by governments, clerics and schoolteachers,” Prosor said. “Every year, from this very podium, the Iranian president denies the Holocaust while threatening to carry out another one.”