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The Holocaust and Memory

"And to them will I give in my house and within my walls a memorial ... an everlasting name (a "yad vashem"), that shall not be cut off."
(Isaiah, chapter 56, verse 5)

For over 25 years, the World Jewish Congress has worked to establish and fund Holocaust foundations, museums and educational programs around the world in an ongoing effort to ensure that the memory of humanity's greatest crime is never forgotten.

Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, was established in 1953 by an act of the Israeli Knesset. Since its inception, Yad Vashem has been entrusted with documenting the history of the Jewish people during the Holocaust period, preserving the memory and story of each of the six million victims, and imparting the legacy of the Holocaust for generations to come through its archives, library, school, museums and recognition of the Righteous Among the Nations.

Yad Vashem's Information Repositories

The Central Database of Holocaust Victims’ Names commemorates the identities and lives of Holocaust victims. Available online, the Database includes over three million names of Holocaust victims. However, many more remain unidentified. Those who have information about Holocaust victims who are not registered in the Database are urgently requested to submit Pages of Testimony in their memory either online or using physical paper forms that can be downloaded in various languages from the site. Pages of Testimony are forms containing the names and biographical details of Jews who perished in the Holocaust and serve as lasting memorials for Holocaust victims. To enter the Database visit www.yadvashem.org

The Archive collection, the largest and most comprehensive repository of material on the Holocaust in the world, comprises 62 million pages of documents, nearly 267,500 photographs along with thousands of films and videotaped testimonies of survivors. These may be accessed by the public on site

The Library houses more than 90,000 titles in many languages, thousands of periodicals and a large number of rare and precious items, establishing itself as the most significant Holocaust library in the world. Holdings may be accessed by the public on site, and residents of Israel are entitled to limited borrowing privileges.

The Hall of Names is a tribute to the victims by remembering them not as anonymous numbers but as individual human beings. The "Pages of Testimony" are symbolic gravestones, which record names and biographical data of millions of martyrs, as submitted by family members and friends. To date Yad Vashem has computerized 3.2 million names of Holocaust victims, compiled from approximately 2 million Pages of Testimony and various other lists.

The International School for Holocaust Studies is the only school of its kind in the world. With 17 classrooms, a modern multimedia center, resource and pedagogical center, an auditorium and over 100 educators on its staff, the school caters annually to over 100,000 students and youth, 50,000 soldiers, and thousands of educators from Israel and around the world.

The International Institute for Holocaust Research coordinates and supports research on national and international levels, organizes conferences and colloquia and publishes a variety of important works on the Holocaust, including memoirs, diaries, historical studies, a scholarly annual and such like.

The Yad Vashem Studies is a series of 31 volumes to date, comprising conference proceedings and scholarly articles on every aspect of the Holocaust.

Yad Vashem Publications has a growing catalogue of Hebrew and English publications including history books, diaries and document collections. Yad Vashem has published over 200 books to date, which constitute the backbone of Holocaust literature in Israeli society. In recent years, 24 books have been published annually.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

One of the most important events in the ongoing campaign to promote and preserve Holocaust memory has been the funding and building of the United State Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC .

"In 1933, the Jewish population of Europe stood at over nine million. Most European Jews lived in countries that the Third Reich would occupy or influence during World War II. By 1945, close to two out of every three European Jews had been killed as part of the "Final Solution", the Nazi policy to murder the Jews of Europe ".

Upon its founding pillars Education, Research, History, Remembrance and Conscience the Museum has created an incredibly important resource for learning, memory and truth telling. It’s mission to ensure that the world “will never forget� is timeless and invaluable and its funding, construction, opening and continued viability is a true milestone in Shoah remembrance and healing.

For information about visiting the USHMM visit http://www.ushmm.org/museum/contact/.