Holocaust Education

• Some 163,000 pupils from Israel and abroad and 1,454 groups of Israeli soldiers participated in seminars at the International School for Holocaust Studies and at the School’s branch in Givatayim. 600 classes of Israeli students made use of the School’s three Nayedet (Mobile Unit) programs.

• The first National Conference for Israeli Teachers was held in July 2005, with some 450 participants from across the country. In addition, some 17,000 Israeli educators attended over 420 teacher-training days nationwide, including 4,700 students from teacher training colleges and 1,800 principals and senior educators who attended seminars at the School. 26 seminars were conducted for 800 participants in a year-long course given by the School.

• The School’s new European Department, opened with support from the International Conference on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims (ICHEIC), conducted 18 seminars at Yad Vashem for educators from abroad, with some 430 participants attending from 13 European states. Seminars also took place in 12 countries across the continent, and the Department produced a number of educational units in several languages.

• 9 seminars were conducted for Jewish educators and educators in countries outside of Europe, with 235 participants. The School also produced Echoes and Reflections, a special multimedia curriculum for US high schools, in cooperation with the ADL and the Shoah Foundation.

• 3 workshops were held for survivors on how to give testimonies in front of audiences.

• Some 70 teachers completed 2 online courses, and the School published 6 new educational units.

Research and Publications

• 2 international conferences, 5 seminars, 14 research workshops and an annual lecture for a research chair were held by the International Institute for Holocaust Research.

• 6 senior researches were hosted by the Research Institute, assisted by research fellowship grants. In addition, 16 awards to masters and doctoral students, 1 doctoral research scholarship and 1 research award were granted by the Institute.

• 42 new books were published by Yad Vashem, including the new Museum Album, To Bear Witness, published in Hebrew and English, and then translated into German, French, Spanish and Russian. Further volumes of both the Lexicon of the Righteous Among the Nations and The Comprehensive History of the Holocaust were also published in 2005, as well as 4 books in the new series of memoirs in English in cooperation with The Holocaust Survivors’ Memoirs Project.

Documentation, Photographs, Testimonies, Names and Books

• 3,636,000 pages of Holocaust-era documentation were received by Yad Vashem. To date, Yad Vashem’s Archive contains some 68 million pages of documentation.

• Some 150,000 names from Pages of Testimony, archival lists and other documentation were added to the Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names, which now contains close to 3.1 million names of Holocaust victims.

• In the first year after the Names Database was uploaded to the Internet, over 7 million visitors from 215 countries were registered on the Yad Vashem website.

• Over 46,000 new Pages of Testimony were submitted to the Hall of Names. The Names Database now contains over 2 million Pages of Testimony (two thirds of the total number of names in the Database).

• 3,400 photographs were added to the Photo Archives, and 1,200 photos to the Hall of Names. Yad Vashem currently houses close to 300,000 photographs, and over 115,000 attached to Pages of Testimony.

• 571 new Holocaust survivor testimonies were recorded by the Oral History Section, Archives Division. The Archives currently house some 44,000 video, audio and written testimonies.

• 4,200 book titles were acquired by the Yad Vashem library. To date, the library holds over 112,000 titles in some 50 languages.

• 32,000 public inquiries were answered by the Reference and Information Services Department. The Department also assisted over 15,000 members of the public in the Library and Archives Reading Room, and answered some 3,100 written enquiries.

Art works and Artifacts

• 733 artifacts and 205 works of art were added Yad Vashem’s Museums Division. The artifacts collection now holds some 24,000 items, and the art collection comprises some10,500 pieces.

Righteous Among the Nations

• 563 individuals were recognized as Righteous Among the Nations. To date, 21,320 individuals have been recognized as Righteous Among the Nations.

Events, Ceremonies and Public Relations

• 2005 saw the completion and dedication of the new Museum Complex: the Holocaust History Museum, the Museum for Holocaust Art, the Exhibitions Pavilion, the Visual Center, the Learning Center, and the new Synagogue. The official dedication ceremony for the new Museum, in March 2005, was attended by an audience of over 2,000 people, including Heads of State and delegations from 40 countries, Holocaust survivors, Yad Vashem supporters and Righteous Among the Nations.

• The opening of the new Museum Complex and the tremendous public interest that followed had a dramatic effect on the number of visitors to the site, which increased to over one million by the end of 2005, including 10,000 organized groups.

• Some 10,000 Holocaust survivors and members of their families from Israel and 12 other countries attended the historic multigenerational gathering at Yad Vashem in May 2005.

• In addition, the Commemoration and Public Relations Division held some 75 events and 283 memorial services. The Division also conducted 971 guided tours for guests of Yad Vashem out of the 2,595 guided tours that took place across the site for more than 50,000 visitors.

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