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Chairman’s Remarks
"And to them will
I give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name (Yad
Vashem)... an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.”
(Isaiah
56:5)
From the moment a child is named, that
name becomes a representation of his identity in the world. His
personality, his likes and dislikes, his accomplishments and his
experiences may be brought to mind simply by uttering his name.
Following the terrible years of the
Shoah, the Jewish people began to search for a way to salvage
the memories of those who perished. Each person represented an
unending potential chain of creation, lost to humanity. Unable to
express the complete life story of each victim—each world that was
extinguished—Yad Vashem sought to convey its loss through
gathering for eternity the one symbol of identity the victims left
behind: their names.
This kind of remembrance—where then
name of each and every victim is recalled—is unique in Jewish
history and particular to the Shoah. Most of the victims
have no official place of rest, no tombstone to testify that they
once lived. Thousands upon thousands of families were completely
wiped out, leaving no one behind to keep their memory alive, or be
named after them.
From its very inception, Yad Vashem
adopted the sacred task of gathering the victims’ names
and—through Pages of Testimony, lists, diaries, artifacts and
photographs—to rebuild their identities. As we document the
victims’ names and the lives that were lost, private memorials
have been turned into public commemoration for the Jewish people
and for all of mankind.
In order to keep their memories alive,
to reach the widest audience and to redeem as many names as
possible, Yad Vashem will soon launch its Central Database of
Shoah Victims’ Names onto the Internet. I hope that by taking
advantage of the best that today’s technology has to offer, the
public will respond by joining us in this vital mission to collect
and catalogue all the information available. Help us recall the
lives, the possibilities—the names—that are part of our history
and heritage, and will remain in our collective memory, for
generations to come.
Copyright ©2004 Yad Vashem The Holocaust
Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority |
