Martydom & Resistance, January/February 2004

ID Transcript mare3003_01 "E<gEH^E JOSEPH MEW^*1 Vol. 30-N0.3 ISSN 0892-1571 January/February 2004-Shevat/Adar 5764 SHOAH VICTIMS ON DATABASE Next June, Yad Vashem will offer access to the world's largest database of the Holocaust. This uniquely interactive resource will enable Yad Vashem to advance one of the most important missions in its 50-year history: to eternalize every man, women, and child murdered by the Nazis and their accomplices. Once online, this database will for the first time become accessible anywhere in the world. Hopefully, this will encourage those who have not yet had the opportunity to visit Yad Vashem to check if the names of their dear ones are memorialized or they will be able to fill out Pages of Testimony that will then be added to the database, (see page 8). SPECIAL EDUCATION CONFERENCE TO MARK YAD VASHEM'S FIFTIETH The 50th anniversary of Yad Vashem will be celebrated at a special conference for educators, August 8- 11, on the theme Teaching the Holocaust to Future Generations. The program will be under the auspices of the Asper International Holocaust Studies Program. Among scheduled sessions are: ""The Role of the Shoah in Jewish Education: The Challenge in the 21st Century""; ""Teacher Training In Holocaust Education: What Are the Dilemmas?""; ""What Are the Moral and Ethical Implications in Interdisciplinary Education?""; ""What Do We Do in the Classroom? - Different Pedagogical Approaches""; ""The Shoah, Israel, and the Jewish People""; ""Anti-Semitism and the Phenomena of Holocaust Denial - How Do We Equip Students With the Proper Tools?"" THE MIRACLE OF HANUKKAH - YAD VASHEM EFFECTS REUNION Call it a miracle of Hanukkah... and indeed it is. But the miracle was facilitated by the professionalism and perseverance of Yad Vashem. On the eve of the first day of Hanukkah, Benjamin Shilom received a phone call where Benjamin Shilom of Bnei Brak was reunited with his sister, Rozia November, 73. They had not seen each other for 61 years. They were born in Warsaw. Mr. Shilom, then Shlomovicz, in 1926, and Rozia two years later. Their father left Warsaw in 1933 - reason unexplained. Their mother left later, so the siblings were dispersed to orphanages run by the legendary educator Dr. Janusz Korczak. Mr. Shilom was eventually sent to an institution in what is now Belarus; Rozia remained at a home in Warsaw. They last saw each other in 1936. Mr. Shilom (Continued on page 8) L. to R.: Eli Zborowski, Chairman, American Society for Yad Vashem; Dr. Marlene Warshawski Yahalom, Director of Education, American Society for Yad Vashem; Motti Shalem, Ph.D., Director, International School for Holocaust Studies, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem; Sigmund Strochlitz, Survivor, National Vice Chair, Connecticut, American Society for Yad Vashem at the Sixth Annual Professional Development Conference ""Using Survivor Testimonies: Witnesses To The Past and Voices For The Future,"" sponsored by the Education Department and Young Leadership Associates of the American Society for Yad Vashem, and the Association of Teachers of Social Studies of the United Federation of Teachers, held on January 25, 2004 at the Ramaz Middle School, New York City. CELEBRATIONS OF LIBERATION ARE ADVANCED BY YAD VASHEM Yad Vashem played an important role in the European celebration of the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau on January 27. Through Yad Vashem's website (www.yadvashem.org/education/ ceremonies/auschwitz), the International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem provided Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremonies, lesson plans, online exhibitions, a photograph library, and lists of victims' names for memorial readings. Among these is the International School's new one-hour lesson plans, Remembering the Holocaust and Combating Xenophobia on January 27th, which is available in English, German, French, Italian, and Swedish. These tools and content are designed to help educators, community leaders, and other interested parties commemorate the Holocaust in an edifying, meaningful, and respectful way. The International School also prepared a booklet of articles on today's anti-Semitism. The booklet was distributed to January 27 program participants. Among the countries who marked January 27 as Holocaust Remembrance Day are Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, Romania, and Russia. The Council of Europe also sponsors a project for schools in each of its 48 member states to choose the day on which on which they seek to memorialize the Holocaust. Further coverage of January 27 will appear in the March-April M & R. Book Reviews .... ........ 2-5,12 Survivors' Corner .................. 5 American Society News .6-8,16 Yad Vashem News 8,16 Kristallnacht Roundup 9 Campus and Classroom 10,11 "