International Holocaust Remembrance Day
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International Holocaust Remembrance Day

  • 1/27/2014
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    President Barack Obama laying a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance President Barack Obama laying a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance Copyright: Yad Vashem
     
     
    US President Barack Obama laying a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance at the Yad Vashem museum, during his visit to Israel in March 2013. Photo: Yad Vashem.


    ​January 27, the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-B
    irkenau extermination camp in 1945, marks the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, as declared by the United Nations in 2005. The memorial day this year is built around the theme "Journeys through the Holocaust".

    On January 27, 1945, Soviet forces liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, discovering the largest Nazi killing center in Europe. Auschwitz has become a symbol of the Holocaust, representing the depths of man's inhumanity to man.

    The theme "Journeys through the Holocaust" recalls the various journeys taken during this dark period, from deportation to incarceration to freedom, and how this experience transformed the lives of those who endured it. These are stories of pain and suffering, yet ultimately also of triumph and renewal, serving as a guiding force for future generations.
     

  • ​Yad Vashem "I Remember Wall" on Facebook

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    "I Remember Wall" is a Facebook application that was developed for "Yad Vashem" and allows any user to randomly link his Facebook profile to the name of a Holocaust victim from the Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names. The profile will then be posted to the wall together with the photo and name of the Holocaust victim.



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  • Memorial Ceremony at the UN

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    Journeys through the Holocaust

    At the United Nations headquarters in New York, a Holocaust Memorial Ceremony on January 27, 2014 will feature a message from the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and remarks by H.E. Mr. John W. Ashe, President of the 68th Session of the General Assembly; H.E. Mr. Ron Prosor, Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations; H.E. Ms. Samantha Power, Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations and Holocaust survivor Rena Finder. Filmmaker Steven Spielberg will deliver the keynote address.

    In addition, a new exhibit entitled “A Remembrance of the Holocaust in Hungary” will open, presenting a historical account of the Holocaust in Hungary in observance of the 70th anniversary of the deportation and extermination of the Hungarian Jews.

    Promoting the role of education in preventing genocide, UNESCO will commemorate the genocide of the Jewish people and the millions of victims of the Nazi regime with an international seminar on “The impact of Holocaust education: how to assess policies and practices?” This seminar, organized in partnership with the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research and the International Bureau of Education of UNESCO, with the support of the Delegation of Hungary, will discuss the content and quality of Holocaust education in several countries of the world. It will be followed by a ceremony in memory of the victims.

    UNESCO will also present several exhibitions on that day: “Journeys through the Holocaust”, testimonies of Jewish refugees by the USC Shoah Foundation and UNESCO; “In the Footsteps of the Lost”, photographs by Matt Mendelsohn with the Shoah Memorial; “The World Knew: Jan Karski’s Mission for Humanity”, by the Permanent Delegation of Poland and “Les Rescapés de la Shoah: courage, volonté, vie”, paintings by Alain Husson-Dumoutier, UNESCO Artist for Peace.

  • ​Largest Knesset Delegation to Auschwitz-Birkenau

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    ​​Sixty MKs and ministers, accompanied by 24 Holocaust survivors, State Comptroller Joseph Shapira, Supreme Court Justice Elyakim Rubinstein, Chief Rabbi David Lau, Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev and some 250 other public figures are scheduled to arrive in Poland on January 27, 2014 – Holocaust Remembrance Day – for a one-day visit. This is the largest delegation of MKs to be sent since the Israeli parliament's establishment.

    The delegation will march to the Birkenau concentration camp, followed by a memorial ceremony in which some 1,000 people, including members of the Polish parliament (the ”Sejm”), are expected to take part. Later, an inter-parliamentary gathering will take place in Krakow with the participation of MPs and prominent figures from Israel, the United States, Poland, Canada and other countries.