Martyrdom and Resistance, January/February 2000

ID Transcript mare2603_01 "EB 16 2000 1 IV MARTYRDOM AND RESISTANCE PUBLISHED BY THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR YAD VASHEM, INC. Vol. 26 - No. 3 ISSN 0892-1571 January-February 2000 -Tevet-Shevat 5760 IN THE NEWS THE HOLOCAUST ON TRIAL What is the first major Holocaust story of the new century? Incredible as it is, the trial of a Holocaust denier leads off the next millennium. After all the commemorations, ceremonies, observances, programs, courses, books, and Holocaust centers — is there a need to prove the existence and extent of the Shoah? However, on January 11, London's High Court opened a libel trial of revisionist historian David Irving against Dr. Deborah Lipstadt, author of Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory. Irving is suing Dr. Lipstadt and her publisher, Penguin. According to the report in the New York Times by Sarah Lyall, ""His main claim is that his reputation has been irrevocably damaged by the book's assertions that he is a Holocaust denier who manipulated history to serve his own needs."" Dr. Lipstadt charged that Irving — author of more than 30 books on the Nazi era — was one of the most dangerous spokespersons for Holocaust denial, one ""who bends historical evidence until in conforms with his ideological leanings and political agenda."" While Irving has been praised for some of his earlier works, especially Hitler's War (1977), he has run into problems in recent years concerning methods and ideology. Publishers Weekly called his biography of (Continued on page 4) $ 5 BILLION FOR NAZI WORKERS BERLIN — After months of bitter and difficult negotiations, agreement has been reached to compensate some 1.5 million Nazi slaves. German industry and government will set up a fund of more than $5 billion to compensate those who were slave laborers during the Third Reich. The agreement would affect about 250,000 concentration camp survivors — more than 125,000 Jewish — who were used as forced laborers by German companies. It would also compensate between 475,000 and 1.2 million non-Jewish laborers from Central and Eastern Europe who were deported and forced to work in Germany. The agreement was mediated by Stuart Eizenstat, the U.S. Deputy Secretary, and Otto Lambsdorf, a former economics'minister in West Germany. ""This is a measure of justice for slave laborers who have waited for a very long time,"" said Gideon Taylor, executive vice president of the Jewish Conference on Material Claims Against Germany. What has not been resolved fully is the process of distributing money to survivors. SHOAH A TOP NEWSMAKER How important was the Holocaust as a news event of the 20th century? According to a Gallup poll, the Shoah placed third, following World War II itself and the dropping of the atom bomb on Japan. Yad Vashem Opens School for Holocaust Studies The official opening of the International School for Holocaust Studies Building at Yad Vashem inaugurates the only school of its kind in the world — perhaps the largest — that will serve educators in Israel and worldwide in the next generations. Inaugurated on December 7 as a major step in the realization of Yad Vashem 2001, the school will hold 17 classrooms, a modern multimedia center, resource and pedagogical center, workshop rooms, and auditorium. The staff of 100 will have one goal: the continuity of the teaching and commemoration of the Holocaust. EDUCATING TEACHERS WORLDWIDE The Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate, Avner Shalev spoke of the goals and direction of the school: ""Profound changes are evident among Israeli youth and intellectuals, as well as among youth from abroad. This has made it clear to us that we have to deal with the challenge of Holocaust commemoration and to a new and reshaped priority to the art of education. ""The main aim of the school is to educate teachers from Israel and abroad who are involved in formal and informal educational institutions."" The school also plans to expand its wide variety of educational programs and study aids, including advanced multimedia programs, maps, books, cassettes, posters, and other educational aids. In addition to the historical disciplines, literature, art, theology, cinema, and theatre will benefit from intensive programming. In another phase, courses are offered for Istaeli teachers, as well as for educators from abroad in seven languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Hungarian, Polish, and Russian. Yad Vashem's professional staff travel across the globe to offer educational programs. It is expected that the facility will be used by some 100,000 students and youth, 50,000 soldiers and thousands .of teachers and educators from Israel and worldwide. The school has been established thanks to the benefaction of Mr. and Mrs. Jack H. Pechter and family, and other donors: Leslie H. Dan and family, Jaime Constantiner and family, Maxi Librati, Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation, Nachama (Sodovski) and Matityahu Zukerman, and the late Sonia Badler. (Continued on page 9) At the Inauguration ceremony for the International School for Holocaust Studies on December 7: (1 to r): Jack H. Pechter, donor, International School for Holocaust Studies; Eli Zborowski, chairman, American and International Societies for Yad Vashem; Yossi Sarid, Minister of Education; Ehud Olmert, Mayor of Jerusalem; Joseph Wilf, campaign chairman, Yad Vashem 2001; Avner Shalev, chairman, Yad Vashem Directorate American Society Hosts Educators Conference Superintendents, principals, and other educators will gather at the Ramaz Lower School in Manhattan on March 12 for a Professional Development Conference on ""Holocaust Education Towards the Next Century."" The all-day program is being sponsored by the Education Department and Young Leadership Associates of the American Society for Yad Vashem. According to Dr. Marlene Warshawski Yahalom, Education Director of the American Society, ""Last year's inaugural conference was highly successful in the number of educators who attended, in the presentations that were offered, and in the enthusiastic responses evoked among those who came. We are planning a program that will be stimulating and meet the needs of those who will be involved in Holocaust education."" Six workshops are being offered: I Wanted to Fly Like a Butterfly, recollections of a girl who survived the Holocaust in Poland; Stolen Childhood, the world of children who grew up prematurely under the Nazi occupation; To Bear Witness, photographs that chronicle the Holocaust through historical events, images, and concepts; Outcast, a video film that documents the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany from 1933-38; The Legend of the Lodz Ghetto, the milieu of the children of the Lodz Ghetto; Return to Life — Survivors From Liberation to Rehabilitation, the return of Jewish refugees to Kielce, life in the displaced persons camps, clandestine immigration to Palestine and mass migration to Israel. To register for this conference, please call Randi Halperin @ 212-220-4304. "