The Holocaust: Frequently Asked Questions, Edited by Avraham Milgram and Robert Rozett
Yad Vashem in association with The Knesset – The Israeli Parliamentary Association for Holocaust Remembrance and Aid to Survivors, 2005, 30 pp., $11 abroad (airmail included) / 39 NIS

While the subject of the Holocaust frequently emerges in public and private discussion, many people are unaware of its basic facts. Devised by Yad Vashem and published in conjunction with the Knesset, the questions and answers presented in this user-friendly volume provide an introduction to all those seeking to refresh or enrich their knowledge of the Holocaust.

The Jews Are Coming Back: The Return of the Jews to Their Countries of Origin After WWII, Edited by David Bankier
Yad Vashem in association with Berghahn Books, 2005, 320 pp., $38 abroad (airmail included) / 129 NIS

This volume offers new perspectives on the experiences of Jewish Holocaust survivors returning to their countries of origin after the end of the war. The articles are essential to our understanding of how the refugees were received by governments, aid organizations, and societies in general. They demonstrate how Jews returning from the camps or emerging from hiding were met with distrust, disbelief, contempt and even open aggression. Liberation had not brought an end to hostility against the Jews; the survivors continued to be regarded as aliens, and it was not long before a resurgence of antisemitism became evident.

This publication and the conference on which it is based were made possible throught the generous support of the Gertner Center for International Conferences, endowed by the late Danek D. and Jadzia B. Gertner.

Avraham Cytryn, Youth Writing Behind the Walls: Avraham Cytryn’s Lodz Notebooks
Yad Vashem, 2005, 250 pp., $24 abroad (airmail included) / 85 NIS

Avraham Cytryn was 13 years old when he was interned in the Lodz ghetto with his mother and sister Lucy. His sister, Lucie Bialer (France), who supported the poublication of this book, recalls that he was obsessed with writing, and was engrossed in his notebooks every spare hour he had after work. He wrote prose and poetry, lamentating the fate of the incarcerated Jews of Lodz doomed to starvation and death. Avraham considered suicide, but did not take his own life due to his compassion for his mother. In the last photograph taken of him—of which he was surely not aware—he is seen behind his mother and sister just before they boarded the train for Auschwitz. Avraham took one notebook with him. The rest remained in the house in the ghetto, where they were retrieved after the war, torn and stained. A rare and exceptional document, these notebooks provide a direct and trenchant account of the terror and the despair endured by the Jews of Lodz.

Herman Kahan, The Fire and the Light (Foreword by Elie Wiesel)
Yad Vashem, 2005, 170 pp., $24 abroad (airmail included) / 85 NIS

Chaim Hersh Kahan was born in Elie Wiesel’s home town of Sighet, Transylvania. His happy pre-war childhood and yeshiva studies were brought to an abrupt halt by confinement in the ghetto, and transport to Auschwitz. He and his father survived selection by Mengele, as well as slave labor in Wolfsberg and Ebensee. Sustained by his father’s spiritual strength, Kahan survived and was liberated. These memoirs are exceptional for the rich descriptions of the author’s emotions. A former refugee in Budapest, Paris and Oslo, Kahan is now a prominent member of the Jewish and business communities in Norway, and Chairman of the Yad Vashem Society Norway. The book is both a memorial to his family and a letter of gratitude to Norway and moral human beings worldwide.

Lexikon der Gerechten unter den Völkern: Deutsche und Österreicher (The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations: Germany and Austria)
German section editor: Daniel Fraenkel; Austrian section editor: Jakob Borut
Yad Vashem in association with Wallstein Verlag, 2005, 129 NIS

The concept of “Righteous Among the Nations” is based on the Talmudic saying, “He who saves one human being is as if he saves an entire world.” Over the past five decades, almost 21,000 Righteous Among the Nations have been recognized by Yad Vashem. They came from all nationalities, religious denominations, and social groups. Each has a deeply human story that represents the preservation of human values in the midst of absolute moral collapse. These ordinary individuals have become cultural heroes, and symbols of courage. They are a source of hope, a role model and an inspiration. The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations series contains the personal stories of each of the rescuers. It presents an authentic record of some of the most moving and heroic acts of our time, and a fitting tribute to the men and women who performed them.

The publication of this volume was made possible by the generous support of the government of the Federal Republic of Germany, the government of the Republic of Austria ,and the EU Commission.

Stolen Youth: Five Women’s Survival in the Holocaust, Series Editor David Silberklang
Yad Vashem, 2005, $21 abroad (airmail included)/ 69 NIS

The latest book in the new series of memoirs published jointly by Yad Vashem and the Holocaust Survivors’ Memoirs Project comprises the experiences of five young women during the Holocaust. Ghetto and concentration camp life, survival in forced labor camps, work for the resistance, giving birth to and caring for young children, and endurance of the Soviet prison system are all included in these astonishing and extremely moving memoirs.

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