Interview: Dani Dayan: Yad Vashem Is Fulfilling Holocaust Victims’ Last Will and Testament

THE TIMES OF ISRAEL: The good news? ‘Outright Holocaust denial is today a marginal phenomenon,’ says the new head of Israel’s Shoah memorial. ‘But we do have a serious problem of Holocaust distortion’

After Dani Dayan took up the mantle of the Yad Vashem chairmanship in August, for the first time Israel’s official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust had a leader who was born after the end of the Holocaust. He is [the] only the third individual to helm the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, and the first former politician.

Prior to heading Yad Vashem, Dayan was the consul general of Israel in New York, an appointment he took up after Brazil rejected him as envoy there.

Dayan, a longtime activist and head of the right-wing settler movement’s Yesha Council, was born in Argentina in 1955 and moved to Israel in 1971. He is a former supporter of ex-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but in the most recent elections ran on the New Hope ticket headed by Netanyahu rival Gideon Sa’ar. Dayan, who didn’t place high enough on the party’s slate to enter the Knesset, was appointed chair of Yad Vashem by Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton, also of New Hope.

Despite his former political ties, Dayan declares that he and Yad Vashem are strictly nonpartisan in their work, and he is determined to combat the cynical political distortion of Holocaust history and ensure the perpetuation of an accurate record of the horrors and lives lost in the Holocaust. » | Amanda Borschel-Dan * | Thursday, January 27, 2022

* Amanda Borschel-Dan is The Times of Israel's Jewish World and Archaeology editor.

Holocaust Memorial Day [Thursday, January 27th]: ‘The Nazis Experimented on Me at Auschwitz’ - BBC News

Jan 26, 2022 • A woman in her nineties who has been diagnosed with dementia has shared her story of how she escaped the Nazis with her son for the first time.

After Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Alina Peretti was sent to a labour camp in Siberia, put in front of a firing squad in Warsaw and finally sent to the concentration camp, Auschwitz.

“It’s unbelievable when you found out that we survived,” she said, ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day on Thursday.

Sie gewöhnten sich ans Massenmorden

Die Täter prosten sich zu: Bei Musikabenden und Bier fühlten sich die Männer des Reservepolizei-Bataillons 101 zwischen den Massenerschießungen offenbar ganz wohl. | Bild: ZDF UND STAATSARCHIV HAMBURG
„GANZ NORMALE MÄNNER“ IM ZDF
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG: Die Dokumentation „Ganz normale Männer - der ,vergessene Holocaust’“ geht der Frage nach, wie durchschnittliche Menschen Täter wurden und sich in die NS-Todesmaschinerie einfügten. Die Erkenntnis ist bis heute aktuell.

Nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg stehen bei den Nürnberger Prozessen der Alliierten deutsche Kriegsverbrecher vor Gericht. Es sind Männer, die die Verbrechen angeordnet haben, nicht die Mörder vor Ort. Aber was ist mit denen, die die systematische Ermordung von Juden, die längst im Gang war, als bei der Wannseekonferenz am 20. Januar 1942 die sogenannte „Endlösung“ beschlossen wurde, mit eigener Hand ausgeführt haben? Die sechs Millionen Menschen töteten, von denen nicht alle in Gaskammern oder auf Todesmärschen umkamen?

Etwa zwei Millionen Menschen fielen systematischen Massenerschießungen zum Opfer, vor allem in Polen. Die meisten Täter, deutsche Polizisten und Soldaten mit „Sonderauftrag“, kamen nach dem Krieg als „ganz normale Männer“ unauffällig davon. … Mit Videoausschnitten » | Von Heike Hupertz | Dienstag, 25. Januar 2022

ZDF Startseite.

Die Wannseekonferenz: Historischer Spielfilm.

UNO verabschiedet Resolution gegen Holocaust-Leugnung

VEREINTE NATIONEN
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG: Die Generalversammlung in New York hat die von Israel und Deutschland verfasste Resolution ohne Abstimmung angenommen und sich auf eine klare Definition der Leugnung des Holocausts geeinigt.

Die Generalversammlung der Vereinten Nationen (UNO) hat eine Resolution gegen die Leugnung des Holocausts verabschiedet. Die 193 Mitglieder zählende Generalversammlung nahm die von Israel und Deutschland verfasste Resolution am Donnerstag ohne Abstimmung an. Nur der Iran distanzierte sich davon. „Die Generalversammlung sendet eine starke und unmissverständliche Botschaft gegen die Leugnung oder Verzerrung dieser historischen Fakten“, sagte die deutsche UN-Botschafterin Antje Leendertse. Mit dem Beschluss einigte sich die UNO auf eine klare Definition der Leugnung des Holocausts. » | Quelle: Reuters | Freitag, 21. Januar 2022

Prince Charles Commissions Artists to Paint Portraits of Holocaust Survivors

TATLER: The Prince of Wales asks leading painters for historically significant works

The Prince of Wales is paying tribute to survivors of the Holocaust by commissioning leading artists to paint portraits of seven men and women who were imprisoned in concentration camps as children. The paintings will become part of the Royal Collection and be displayed in The Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace and the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh.

PRINCE CHARLES | Max Mumby / Indigo / Getty Images
Passionate in promoting tolerance between communities, the prince hopes the portraits will demonstrate ‘humanity's interconnectedness, as we strive to create a better world for our children, grandchildren and generations as yet unborn - one where hope is victorious over despair and love triumphs over hate’. His Royal Highness, who is Patron of National Holocaust Memorial Day, has often warned about the repercussions of extremism and in a speech marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, he insisted that the lessons of the Holocaust were still ‘searingly relevant’. » | Dora Davies-Evitt | Wednesday, January 12, 2022

Half of Britons Do Not Know 6m Jews Were Murdered in Holocaust

THE GUARDIAN: Survey also finds majority of UK respondents believe fewer people care about Holocaust today than used to

The Holocaust Memorial Garden in Hyde Park, London. Photograph: Anthony Harvey/Rex/Shutterstock
Just over half of Britons did not know that 6 million Jewish people were murdered during the Holocaust, and less than a quarter thought that 2 million or fewer were killed, a new survey has found.

The study also found that 67% of UK respondents wrongly believed that the government allowed all or some Jewish immigration, when in fact the British government shut the door to Jewish immigration at the outbreak of the war.

When respondents were asked about the Kindertransport, an initiative set up between 1938 and 1939 to rescue nearly 10,000 Jewish child refugees and bring them to Britain, 76% said they did not know what the historic effort was. » | Aamna Mohdin and Rachel Hall | Wednesday, November 10, 2021

Holocaust: Deutsche Muslime, Christen und Juden besuchen Auschwitz | DW Reporter

Oct 10, 2021 • Am Ort des Holocaust kommen sie mit Zeitzeugen ins Gespräch, teilen ihre Eindrücke miteinander. Solche Begegnungsreisen sind nötig, lautet die Erfahrung der Veranstalter, denn im Schulunterricht in Deutschland wird die Geschichte der Nazidiktatur nicht immer umfassend behandelt; manchmal nur als ein Zeitabschnitt unter vielen. Da gibt es Nachholbedarf - und die Chance, durch die drastische Konfrontation mit dem Grauen der Shoa aktuellem Antisemitismus und antimuslimischen Rassismus zu begegnen. Am Ende sind sich die TeilnehmerInnen einig: Jeder junge Deutsche sollte einmal in einem ehemaligen KZ gewesen sein. Eine Reportage von Axel Rowohlt.

Anger as Poland Plans Law That Will Stop Jews Reclaiming Wartime Homes

Shoshana Greenberg in Tel Aviv last month with a portrait of her parents. Photograph: Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images
THE OBSERVER: Daughter of Holocaust survivor pledges to continue her fight for family property seized by Nazi occupiers

A few years ago, Shoshana Greenberg stood outside a building in Lodz, Poland, once owned by her family, with an old photograph in her hands and tears running down her face.

Greenberg, now 74 and living in Tel Aviv, was on a quest to reclaim property lost during the Holocaust. Her father was head of a prominent, wealthy Jewish family in Lodz that owned industrial buildings, residential homes and holiday properties.

When the Nazis came, the property was confiscated along with the family jewellery. They were forced into the Lodz ghetto. Later, Greenberg’s father and his siblings were sent to Auschwitz, and only her father survived. After the war, the new communist government in Poland nationalised property that had been confiscated while destitute Holocaust survivors rebuilt their lives from scratch elsewhere.

Since the fall of communist Europe in 1989, most countries in the former Soviet bloc have taken steps to provide restitution and compensation to their pre-war Jewish citizens. Poland is the only major country that has not implemented such a programme – and now it is on the verge of making recompense even harder. » | Harriet Sherwood | Sunday, August 1, 2021

Friendships That Saved Lives during the Holocaust

Jul 30, 2020 • When Pennsylvanian teen Jane Bomberger and American exchange student Robert Harlan learned about Nazi persecution of Jews, they wanted to take action. They were able to help their friends flee Nazi Germany and Austria. Assistance from abroad was vital because few people could obtain the necessary paperwork and permissions needed to emigrate from Nazi-occupied Europe in the 1930s. On the United Nations International Day of Friendship, join Museum experts to learn about individuals who helped their Jewish friends find refuge. Speaker Susan Goldstein Snyder, Curator, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Moderator Dr. Edna Friedberg, Historian, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Acts of Resistance: Love Stories of the Holocaust

Feb 12, 2021 • Sam and Regina Spiegel found love in the most unlikely of places—at a forced labor camp in German-occupied Poland. For Gad Beck and Manfred Lewin, their affection put the young Jewish men at a greater risk, so they kept their forbidden relationship a secret. Even in the darkest hours of the Holocaust, love gave many a reason to hope for a better future, the will to survive, and inspiration to rebuild after the war.

Join Museum historians on Facebook Live to learn how love became an act of resistance for people persecuted by the Nazi regime.

Speaker: Dr. Lindsay MacNeill, Historian, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Moderator: Dr. Edna Friedberg, Historian, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Gay Pride: Kitty Fischer on Gay Male Rescuer in Auschwitz

Jun 18, 2015 • For National Gay Pride Month, USC Shoah Foundation featuried a testimony clip every week in June of eyewitnesses to the Nazi persecution of gay men in the Holocaust. Kitty Fischer recounts her time in Auschwitz-II Birkenau when, as a young girl, she encountered for the first time a gay male prisoner who turned out to save her life. To learn more and explore the stories of other eyewitnesses to the Holocaust and other genocides, visit sfi.usc.edu | Copyright USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education.


Viewer discretion is advised. – Mark

The Pink Triangles: The Story of the Gay Holocaust (Complete Documentary)

Premiered Jan 21, 2021 • The vastly ignored history of Germany's war on gay men during World War 2. A special note: Trans women were also persecuted but Germany categorized them as gay men so there's no official records to refer to.
This video is age-restricted; so, to watch it, you will have to verify your age with a credit card or a driver’s licence. The video cannot be embedded; it has to be watched on YouTube itself. This documentary is not for the faint-hearted. It shows how gays were persecuted in the Third Reich. People with a conscience should watch it, however. We need to ensure that such atrocities never ever happen again – anywhere.

Click here for viewing.

Gay Pride: Kitty Fischer on Gay Male Rescuer in Auschwitz

For National Gay Pride Month USC Shoah Foundation is featuring a testimony clip every week in June of eyewitnesses to the Nazi persecution of Gay men in the Holocaust. Kitty Fischer recounts her time in Auschwitz-II Birkenau when as a young girl she encounters for the first time a gay male prisoner who will turn out to save her life.

What Did the Pope Know about the Holocaust? | DW Documentary

The Vatican opened once-secret records on Pope Pius XII on March 2020. This gave researchers a brand new insight into the Catholic Church during the Nazi era. What did the Pope know about the Holocaust?

Pius XII, born Eugenio Pacelli, is one of the most controversial figures in recent church history. New archive material sheds light on his career and politics. As ambassador of the Holy See in Germany and Cardinal Secretary of State of the Vatican, Pacelli witnessed Hitler’s rise to power. He was elected Pope in 1939, just months before the start of World War II. But what role did he play during the Holocaust? Many accuse him of shirking his responsibilities; of complicit silence while minorities were murdered, especially the Jewish.

Just days after the archives opened, church historian Hubert Wolf discovered a document describing the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto. Pope Pius XII read the paper on 27 September 1942, but its contents were never published. Nor were the notes in the margins by members of the Secretariat of State. But the Vatican claimed for decades that nothing was kept from the public.

Defenders of Pius XII say he acted in secret to save the lives of many Jews. Thousands were hidden in church institutions, and the Roman Curia helped them to escape abroad. But the credibility of the Roman Curia during the Holocaust is now at stake, with many still unanswered questions. Why did Pius XII not join the Allies’ protest in December 1942 against the extermination of the Jews?

Peter Hayes – Why Did the Holocaust Happen?

Peter Hayes, Professor Emeritus of Holocaust Studies at Northwestern University and author of Why? Explaining the Holocaust, discusses crucial questions in Holocaust Studies. From the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, at the JCC of Harrison, NY.

Dr. Peter Hayes: "German Corporate Complicity in the Holocaust"

Brought to you by the Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas, the Burton C. Einspruch Holocaust Lecture Series speaker Dr. Peter Hayes and his lecture "German Corporate Complicity in the Holocaust" on Monday, October 29, 2018.

The Nazi Officer's Wife

The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust is a 1999 autobiography by Austrian-born Edith Hahn-Beer. Written with the help of Susan Dworkin, the book's first edition was published by Rob Weibach Books and William Morrow and Company. A documentary film based on the source material and starring Hahn-Beer herself was released in 2003.

Surviving the Holocaust: Full Show

“You don’t ever expect to be hauled out of your house, marched into a gas chamber, and be choked to death,” says Irene Fogel Weiss.

Yet, that is exactly what happened to most of her family in the summer of 1944. Irene was thirteen at the time, and by several twists of fate, she survived.

“There is a life force in all of us that you just want to live another day,” she says. “Let’s survive this. We have to survive this.” Irene shares her story of survival with hundreds of high school students every year. In this program, we listen in on her presentation to Woodson High School students as she shares a personal account of the events that lead to the Holocaust. She discusses her life as a child in Hungary, the changes she witnessed as the Nazis took power, and all manner of degradations imposed on the Jewish people.

Irene describes how her family was ostracized from society and how the Jewish “ghettos” were created. She discusses what her family did and did not know about Nazi practices across Europe and how the deportation of Jews worked. She recounts her arrival at the worst of all Nazi death camps – Auschwitz-Birkenau – and shares historic photos, taken by the Nazis, which capture the very day that her family arrived. She talks about the painful separation from her family and what it was like to be a prisoner at Auschwitz.

After sharing the story of her liberation and rebuilding her life in America, Irene examines the questions of propaganda and humanity that surround the Holocaust. She helps students understand the importance of critical examination of information and comparing sources. She discusses how a basic lack of empathy and humanity toward each other can lead to cruel, and ultimately horrific, behaviors. Irene uses her experience in the Holocaust as a lesson for us all.

We Shall Not Die Now (Holocaust Documentary) | Timeline

From Blackbird Pictures, in association with the US Holocaust Museum and the Claude Lanzmann “Shoah” Collection, We Shall Not Die Now chronicles the Holocaust, when, between 1939 and 1945, over six million Jews and millions of others were systematically murdered by the Nazi regime. Seventy-five years after the conclusion of the war, the film explores not only the horrific human tragedy and what we can learn from it, but also the resilience of those that rebuilt their lives in spite of the unimaginable. Told by the survivors and liberators who experienced it first-hand such as Cantor Moshe Taube (number twenty-two on Schindler’s List) and Ben Ferencz (concentration camp liberator and last living prosecutor of the Nuremberg trials), We Shall Not Die Now is a journey of despair, hope, and the triumph of the human spirit through history’s darkest hours.

With the help of the US Holocaust Museum's archival team and Claude Lanzmann’s daughter, Angelique, the production was able to explore dozens of hours of unused material filmed for the 1985 documentary “Shoah.” Select reels of that footage was incorporated into the film with the blessing of the Lanzmann family. The film also includes new footage filmed at the camps in Poland, new interviews with survivors and liberators, and original music composed by Golden-globe nominated composer, Benjamin Wallfisch.

The film was created by 19-year-old Indianapolis-based filmmaker Ashton Gleckman, who traveled around the country to interview survivors. He worked with the various memorial sites in Poland to film at the concentration camps and historical sites and went on to edit the film and help to compose the score. The film commemorates the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.


Movie: We Shall Not Die Now »

We Shall Not Die Now | Holocaust Documentary | Timeline

From Blackbird Pictures, in association with the US Holocaust Museum and the Claude Lanzmann “Shoah” Collection, We Shall Not Die Now chronicles the Holocaust, when, between 1939 and 1945, over six million Jews and millions of others were systematically murdered by the Nazi regime. Seventy-five years after the conclusion of the war, the film explores not only the horrific human tragedy and what we can learn from it, but also the resilience of those that rebuilt their lives in spite of the unimaginable. Told by the survivors and liberators who experienced it first hand such as Cantor Moshe Taube (number twenty-two on Schindler’s List) and Ben Ferencz (concentration camp liberator and last living prosecutor of the Nuremberg trials), We Shall Not Die Now is a journey of despair, hope, and the triumph of the human spirit through history’s darkest hours.

With the help of the US Holocaust Museum's archival team and Claude Lanzmann’s daughter, Angelique, the production was able to explore dozens of hours of unused material filmed for the 1985 documentary “Shoah.” Select reels of that footage was incorporated into the film with the blessing of the Lanzmann family. The film also includes new footage filmed at the camps in Poland, new interviews with survivors and liberators, and original music composed by Golden-globe nominated composer, Benjamin Wallfisch.

The film was created by 19-year-old Indianapolis-based filmmaker Ashton Gleckman, who traveled around the country to interview survivors. He worked with the various memorial sites in Poland to film at the concentration camps and historical sites and went on to edit the film and help to compose the score. The film commemorates the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.