Yad Vashem (Hebrew: יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against their Nazi oppressors and Gentiles who selflessly aided Jews in need; and researching the phenomenon of the Holocaust in particular and genocide in general, with the aim of avoiding such events in the future.[4]
Established in 1953, Yad Vashem is located on the western slope of Mount Herzl, also known as the Mount of Remembrance, a height in western Jerusalem, 804 meters (2,638 ft) above sea level and adjacent to the Jerusalem Forest. The memorial consists of a 180-dunam (18.0 ha; 44.5-acre) complex containing two types of facilities: some dedicated to the scientific study of the Holocaust and genocide in general, and memorials and museums catering to the needs of the larger public. Among the former there are a research institute with archives, a library, a publishing house, and an educational center, and the International School for Holocaust Studies; among the latter, 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, and a synagogue.
A core goal of Yad Vashem's founders was to recognize non-Jews who, at personal risk and without a financial or evangelistic motive, chose to save Jews from the ongoing genocide during the Holocaust. Those recognized by Israel as Righteous Among the Nations are honored in a section of Yad Vashem known as the Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations.
Yad Vashem is the second-most-visited Israeli tourist site, after the Western Wall, with approximately one million visitors each year. It charges no admission fee.
Contents
1 Etymology
2 History
3 Administration
4 Objectives
4.1 Yad Vashem Studies
5 Museum
6 Architecture
7 Hall of Names
8 Archives
9 Righteous Among the Nations
10 Art gallery
11 Monuments
12 Prizes awarded by Yad Vashem
13 Awards bestowed upon Yad Vashem
14 Notable visitors
14.1 Heads of state
14.1.1 Presidents
14.1.2 Prime Ministers (heads of government)
14.2 Royalty
14.3 UN Secretary-Generals
14.4 Religious figures
14.5 Others
15 See also
16 References
17 External links
Etymology
The name "Yad Vashem" is taken from a verse in the Book of Isaiah: "[To] them will I give in my house and within my walls a [memorial] and a [name], better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting [name], that shall not be cut off [from memory]." [5][6] Hebrew: וְנָתַתִּי לָהֶם בְּבֵיתִי וּבְחוֹמֹתַי יָד וָשֵׁם, טוֹב מִבָּנִים וּמִבָּנוֹת; שֵׁם עוֹלָם אֶתֶּן לוֹ, אֲשֶׁר לֹא יִכָּרֵת.). Naming the Holocaust memorial "yad vashem" (Hebrew: יָד וָשֵׁם, yād wā-šêm, literally "a memorial and a name") conveys the idea of establishing a national depository for the names of Jewish victims who have no one to carry their name after death. The original verse referred to eunuchs who, although they could not have children, could still live for eternity with the Lord.[7]
History
The wagon (or cattle car) monument in memory of those deported by rail
The desire to establish a memorial in the historical Jewish homeland for Jewish victims of the Nazi Holocaust originated during World War II, in response to emerging accounts 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.[7] In August 1945, the plan was discussed in greater detail at a Zionist meeting in London. A provisional board of Zionist leaders was established that included 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 of Jerusalem. However, the outbreak of the 1947–1949 Palestine war brought operations to a standstill for two years.
On 19 August 1953, the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, unanimously passed the Yad Vashem Law, establishing the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, the aim of which was "the commemoration in the Homeland of all those members of the Jewish people who gave their lives, or rose up and fought the Nazi enemy and its collaborators," and to set up "a memorial to them, and to the communities, organizations and institutions that were destroyed because they belonged to the Jewish people."[8]
Valley of the (Destroyed) Communities
On 29 July 1954, the cornerstone for the Yad Vashem building was laid on a hill in western Jerusalem, to be known as the Mount of Remembrance (Hebrew: Har HaZikaron); the organization had already begun projects to collect the names of individuals killed in the Holocaust; acquire Holocaust documentation and personal testimonies of survivors for the Archives and Library; and develop research and publications. The memorial and museum opened to the public in 1957.[9][10]
The location of Yad Vashem on the western side of Mount Herzl, an area devoid of weighty historical associations, was chosen to convey a symbolic message of "rebirth" after destruction, distinct from the Chamber of the Holocaust, founded in 1948 on Mount Zion.[11][12] Thus, the latter museum, whose walls are lined with plaques memorializing over 2,000 Jewish communities destroyed during the Holocaust,[13][14] portrays the Holocaust as a continuation of the "death and destruction" that plagued Jewish communities throughout Jewish history.[15]
In 1982, Yad Vashem sponsored the International Conference on Holocaust and Genocide, which included six presentations on the Armenian genocide. It later withdrew from the conference after threats by the Turkish government that Jewish lives would be put in danger if the conference went ahead.[16][17][18]
On 15 March 2005, a new Museum complex four times larger than the old one opened at Yad Vashem. It included the Holocaust History Museum with a new Hall of Names, a Museum of Holocaust Art, an Exhibitions Pavilion, a Learning Center and a Visual Center.[19][20] The new Yad Vashem museum was designed by Israeli-Canadian architect Moshe Safdie, replacing the previous 30-year-old exhibition.[21] It was the culmination of a $100 million decade-long expansion project.[22]
Administration
In November 2008, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau was appointed Chairman of Yad Vashem's Council, replacing Tommy Lapid.[23] The Vice Chairmen of the council are Yitzhak Arad and Moshe Kantor. Elie Wiesel was Vice Chairman of the council until his death on 2 July 2016.[24]
Yitzhak Arad served as the Chairman of the Directorate from 1972 to 1993. He was succeeded by Avner Shalev, who served as chairman until February 2021.[25] Shalev was succeeded as chairman by Dani Dayan in August 2021.[26]
The Members of the Yad Vashem Directorate are Yossi Ahimeir, Daniel Atar, Michal Cohen, Matityahu Drobles, Avraham Duvdevani, Prof. Boleslaw (Bolek) Goldman, Vera H. Golovensky, Moshe Ha-Elion, Adv. Shlomit Kasirer, Yossi Katribas, Yehiel Leket, Baruch Shub, Dalit Stauber, Dr. Zehava Tanne, Adv. Shoshana Weinshall, and Dudi Zilbershlag.[24]
The Director-General is Dorit Novak. The Head of the International Institute for Holocaust Research and Incumbent is John Najmann. The Chair for Holocaust Studies is Prof. Dan Michman. The Chief Historian is Prof. Dina Porat. The Academic Advisor is Prof. Yehuda Bauer.[24]
Objectives
The eternal flame
The aims of Yad Vashem are education, research and documentation, and commemoration.[27] Yad Vashem organizes professional development courses for educators both in Israel and throughout the world; develops age-appropriate study programs, curricula, and educational materials for Israeli and foreign schools in order to teach students of all ages about the Holocaust; holds exhibitions about the Holocaust; collects the names of Holocaust victims;[28] collects photos, documents, and personal artifacts; and collects Pages of Testimony memorializing victims of the Holocaust.[29] Yad Vashem seeks to preserve the memory and names of the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, and the numerous Jewish communities destroyed during that time. It holds ceremonies of remembrance and commemoration; supports Holocaust research projects; develops and coordinates symposia, workshops, and international conferences; and publishes research, memoirs, documents, albums, and diaries related to the Holocaust.[30] Yad Vashem also honors non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.
The International Institute for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem, founded in 1993, offers guides and seminars for students, teachers, and educators, and develops pedagogic tools for use in the classroom. Yad Vashem trains 10,000 domestic and foreign teachers every year.[31] The organization operates a web site in several languages, including German, Hebrew, Persian, and Arabic.[citation needed] In 2013 Yad Vashem launched an online campaign in Arabic, promoting Yad Vashem's website. The campaign reached over 2.4 million Arabic speakers from around the globe, and the traffic to Yad Vashem's website was tripled.[32]
The institution's policy is that the Holocaust "cannot be compared to any other event". In 2009 Yad Vashem fired a docent for comparing the trauma Jews suffered in the Holocaust to the trauma Palestinians suffered during 1947–1949 Palestine war, including the Deir Yassin massacre.[33]
Yad Vashem Studies
Yad Vashem Studies is a peer-reviewed semi-annual scholarly journal on the Holocaust. Published since 1957, it appears in both English and Hebrew editions.[34]
Museum
View of Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum
Yad Vashem opened to the public in 1957. Its exhibits focused on Jewish resistance in the Warsaw ghetto, the uprisings in Sobibor and Treblinka death camps, and the struggle of survivors to reach Israel.[35]
In 1993, planning began for a larger, more technologically advanced museum to replace the old one. The new building, designed by Canadian-Israeli architect Moshe Safdie, consists of a long corridor connected to 10 exhibition halls, each dedicated to a different chapter of the Holocaust. 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. The old historical displays revolving around anti-Semitism and the rise of Nazism have been replaced by exhibits that focus on the personal stories of Jews killed in the Holocaust. According to Avner Shalev, the museum's curator and chairman, a visit to the new museum revolve around "looking into the eyes of the individuals. There weren't six million victims, there were six million individual murders."[35]
The new museum was dedicated on 15 March 2005 in the presence of leaders from 40 states and then Secretary General of the UN Kofi Annan. President of Israel Moshe Katzav said that Yad Vashem 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".[36]
In April 2019, Yad Vashem will break ground on a new subterranean center to house and conserve millions of artifacts from the Holocaust.[37]
Architecture
Prism skylight
The first architect involved in the design of Yad Vashem was Munio Weinraub, who worked on the project from 1943 till the 1960s, together with his architectural partner Al Mansfield.[38] He was approached for this purpose by Mordechai Shenhavi, the initiator and first director of the institution.[38] Weinraub's plans were not realised as a whole, but some of his ideas are visible in Yad Vashem today.[38]
The new Holocaust History Museum, designed by Moshe Safdie, is shaped like a triangular concrete prism that cuts through the landscape, illuminated by a 200-meter-long (656 ft) skylight. Visitors follow a preset route that takes them through underground galleries that branch off from the main hall.[22] Safdie is also the architect behind the Children's Memorial and the Deportees (cattle-car) Memorial.
The gates are the work of the sculptor David Palombo (1920–1966).
Hall of Names
Main article: Hall of Names
The Hall of Names containing Pages of Testimony commemorating the millions of Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust
The Hall of Names is a memorial to the six million Jews who were murdered 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.
Since the 1950s, Yad Vashem has collected approximately 110,000 audio, video, and written testimonies by Holocaust survivors. As the survivors age, the program has expanded to visiting survivors in their homes, to tape interviews. Adjoining the hall is a study area with a computerized data bank where visitors can do online searches for the names of Holocaust victims.
Archives
The Archive is the oldest department of Yad Vashem. Before presenting an exhibition, Yad Vashem collects items. The best known of these are the historical photographs, as well as the Pages of Testimonies collected from survivors. The latter is a database of personal information about those who survived and those who were murdered in the Holocaust. Yad Vashem has also acquired access to the database of the International Tracing Service of Bad Arolsen of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and these two databases complement each other for research purposes.
Righteous Among the Nations
Main article: Righteous Among the Nations
Tree, memorial honoring Irena Sendler (Polish social worker who smuggled more than 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto)[39]
Janusz Korczak and the children, memorial
Memorial to the Jewish children murdered by the Nazis
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,[40] 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. Five hundred and fifty-five individuals were recognized during 2011, and as of 2019, more than 26,973 individuals have been recognized as Righteous Among the Nations.[41]
Yad Vashem's declared policy is not to provide meaningful recognition, even in a possible new category, to Jews who rescued Jews, regardless of the number of people their activism saved. The stated reason is that Jews had an obligation to save fellow Jews and do not deserve recognition.[42][43]
Art gallery
Yad Vashem houses the world's largest collection of artwork produced by Jews and other victims of Nazi occupation in 1933–1945. The Yad Vashem Art Department supervises a 10,000-piece collection, adding 300 pieces a year, most of them donated by survivors' families or discovered in attics.[44] Included in the collection are works by Alexander Bogen, Alice Lok Cahana, Samuel Bak, and Felix Nussbaum.
Monuments
The monument to the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising by Nathan Rapoport, a version of the 1948 Monument to the Ghetto Heroes from Warsaw.
Janusz Korczak and the Children, memorial to the educator and the children he refused to leave
Memorial to the Jewish children murdered in the Holocaust
The Memorial to the Deportees, aka "train monument", in memory of the Jews taken to the extermination camps by cattle cars
Valley of the (Destroyed) Communities, in memory of the Jewish communities of Europe which ceased to exist after the Holocaust
Prizes awarded by Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem awards the following book prizes:
Yad Vashem Prize for Children's Holocaust Literature
Yad Vashem International Book Prize for Holocaust Research, established in 2011 in memory of Abraham Meir Schwartzbaum, Holocaust survivor, and his family who was murdered in the Holocaust. It is awarded annually in recognition of high scholarly research and writing on the Holocaust.[45]
Sussman Prize for Paintings of the Shoah.
The annual Buchman Foundation Memorial Prize, for writers and scholars for Holocaust-related works. Recipients include:[46]
2007: Hanoch Bartov, for Beyond the Horizon, Across the Street
2007: Shlomo Aronson, for Hitler, the Allies and the Jews
Earlier: Aharon Appelfeld, Alona Frankel (2005),[47] Ida Fink, Dina Porat, Lizzie Doron, Amir Gottfreund, and Itamar Levin.
Awards bestowed upon Yad Vashem
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.[48]
In 2003, Yad Vashem was awarded the Israel Prize, for lifetime achievement and its special contribution to society and the State.[49][50]
In September 2007, Yad Vashem received the Prince of Asturias Award for Concord.[51] The Prince of Asturias Awards are presented in eight categories. The Award for Concord is bestowed upon a person, persons, or institution whose work has made an exemplary and outstanding contribution to mutual understanding and peaceful coexistence among 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 awarded the Légion d'honneur for his "extraordinary work on behalf of Holocaust remembrance worldwide." French President Nicolas Sarkozy presented Shalev with the award in a special ceremony at the Élysée Palace.
In 2011, Shalev received the City of Jerusalem's Patron of Jerusalem Award in recognition of his work in the city.[52] *** ″And to them will I give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name (a ΄yad vashem΄)... that shall not be cut off.″
(Isaiah, chapter 56, verse 5)
The Yad Vashem Campus
Established in 1953 by an act of the Knesset (Israeli Parliament), Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, is entrusted with the task of commemorating, documenting, researching and educating about the Holocaust: remembering the six million Jews murdered by the German Nazis and their collaborators, the destroyed Jewish communities, and the ghetto and resistance fighters; and honoring the Righteous Among the Nations who risked their lives to rescue Jews during the Holocaust. Yad Vashem encompasses 45 acres on the Mount of Remembrance in Jerusalem and is comprised of various museums, research and education centers, monuments and memorials. Among these are the Museum Complex, the Hall of Remembrance, the Valley of the Communities and the Children’s Memorial.
Each year some one million people visited Yad Vashem, and millions more visit its website, which is now available in eight languages.
With increasing interest being displayed worldwide in the events of the Holocaust as well as its Jewish and universal significance, and dramatic changes in the basic tools for commemoration, Yad Vashem continually strives to meaningfully impart the memory and meanings of the Holocaust to future generations. In order to meet the challenges facing Holocaust remembrance more than a half a century after the end of World War II, Yad Vashem has created an environment of multidimensional learning and commemoration comprised of four basic components:
Documentation
Personal Holocaust-era items donated to Yad Vashem for safekeeping
The collection and transfer to Yad Vashem of documents from Europe and North Africa, the filming of survivors’ testimonies, and the creation of the world’s largest and most comprehensive repository of material on the Holocaust on which the structure of remembrance rests, is an ongoing process.
The state-of-the-art Archives currently house hundreds of millions of pages of documentation, photographs, and video, audio and written testimonies. Efforts continue to collect the names and stories of each and every victim of the Holocaust, and the Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names now includes more than 4,800,000 names of Holocaust victims. The source of close to half the total number of names is from Pages of Testimony, while the remainder were gleaned from archival lists and documents.
The Library contains the world's most comprehensive collection of published Holocaust-related material, allowing researchers, educators and the general public access to a wealth of published information on this seminal event in history.
Yad Vashem’s Visual Center is the foremost resource center of cinematic work related to the Holocaust. The Center allows access to survivor testimonies as well as Holocaust-related films of all genres – documentaries, feature films, personal family videos, animated films, news items and more – enabling database research and viewing of the entire film collection.
Research
Conference of the International Institute for Holocaust Research
The International Institute for Holocaust Research encourages, supports and advances scholarly studies on the Holocaust. Its projects help lay the foundations for additional investigation of the cataclysmic events that took place during the Shoah, not only providing a source of information, but also promoting future research by other scholars. Through its workshops and conferences, as well as the plethora of publications it publishes and disseminates, the Research Institute encourages stimulating academic discourse and promotes fresh insights into core topics of the Holocaust. A number of specialized research centers focus on the history of the Holocaust in the areas of the FSU, Poland and Germany, as well as the aftermath of the Shoah and its commemoration worldwide. The Institute also publishes Yad Vashem Studies, a biannual academic journal featuring articles on the cutting edge of research on the Holocaust, as well as some 30 books a year, ranging from in-depth research studies and encyclopedias to survivor memoirs and diaries.
Education
Students participating in an educational activity at Yad Vashem
The International School for Holocaust Studies – the only school of its kind in the world – offers extensive activities for students and educators in the field of Holocaust education and develops innovative methods, creative materials and multimedia tools tailor-made for teachers worldwide. Hundreds of thousands of teachers and students, from Israel and around the world, attend educational programs and intensive seminars at Yad Vashem every year. Tens of thousands more participate in online courses as well as educational activities in their home countries. International conferences provide a meeting place for educators from across the globe, where they are given the opportunity to expand their knowledge of the Holocaust and tools to impart it to their students, all the while developing a vital network of colleagues. Preparatory courses for students and officers of the IDF embarking on journeys to Poland also take place throughout the year. The Learning Center is an interactive educational experience that allows visitors to delve into the historical and moral issues and dilemmas that arise from the Holocaust.
Remembrance
The Holocaust History Museum
The central component of Yad Vashem's Museum Complex is the Holocaust History Museum, which depicts the Holocaust from both a Jewish and personal perspective through authentic artifacts, writings and documents belonging to the victims, as well as through survivor testimonies.
Other integral parts of the Complex are the Museum of Holocaust Art, displaying pieces from the world’s most extensive collection of Holocaust-related artworks; the Exhibitions Pavilion, displaying rotating special exhibitions; and a Synagogue that serves as a place for private and public prayer, as well as memorial services for decimated Jewish communities. The Synagogue includes a permanent exhibit of Torah arks and other Judaica recovered from destroyed synagogues in Europe.
Yad Vashem holds dozens of commemorative events throughout the year, many in conjunction with survivor organizations, in memory of the victims of the Shoah and the destroyed Jewish communities. Each year, the President and Prime Minister of the State of Israel, dignitaries, diplomats and leading figures from around the world join survivors and their families at the official Holocaust Remembrance Day events at Yad Vashem.
Part of the law establishing Yad Vashem calls for recognizing non-Jews who risked their lives to rescue Jews during the Holocaust. In a unique program, 27,000 individuals have been recognized to date as Righteous Among the Nations. Each year, hundreds of new Righteous are recognized, as their stories and accounts of rescue continue to come to light. The Righteous are honored at Yad Vashem with trees planted in their names throughout the Mount of Remembrance, or with their names engraved on the Wall of Honor in the Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations. In addition, their stories are told in The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations. Names of the Righteous Among the Nations are available online through a searchable database on the Yad Vashem website, which includes historical information, images and other material on these inspiring accounts.
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