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Yad Vashem’s
Multi-Year Development Plan
Remembering the Past, Shaping the Future
Background:
Established as the
Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority in 1953 by an act
of the Knesset, Yad Vashem is entrusted with the task of
commemorating, documenting, researching and educating about the Shoah
of the six million Jews murdered by the German Nazis and their
collaborators, the destroyed Jewish communities, the heroic ghetto and
resistance fighters, and the Righteous Among the Nations who risked
their lives to save Jews.
Yad Vashem covers 45
acres on the Mount of Remembrance in Jerusalem and is comprised of
various monuments, memorials, research centers and museums. Among these
are the new Museum Complex, the Hall of Remembrance, the Valley of the
Communities and the Children’s Memorial.
More than one million
people visit Yad Vashem annually.
The Multi-Year
Development Plan:
The concept for Yad
Vashem’s Multi-Year Development Plan came about as Yad Vashem found
itself at a crossroads. In the midst of a communications revolution, the
generation of Holocaust survivors is entrusting the legacy and
commemoration of the Holocaust to younger generations.
Against the backdrop of
increasing interest in Holocaust studies and research, and the
Holocaust’s Jewish and universal significance, and with the dramatic
change in the basic tools for commemoration, Yad Vashem faced the
question of how to meaningfully commemorate the Holocaust in the new
millennium.
Therefore, in order to
meet the challenges that lie ahead and to maintain its leading and
central role, a Multi-Year Development Plan was created. It comprised
six principal components:
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Collection and transfer to Yad Vashem of documents from
Europe; videotaping of survivors’ testimonies; and a new Archives and
Library building – the world’s largest and most comprehensive
repository of material on the Holocaust, on which the structure of
remembrance rests. The new Archives and Library Building, which
officially opened in March 2000, currently houses more than 68 million
pages of documentation, 300,000 photographs, thousands of
videocassettes, over 112,000 titles of books and several thousand
journals. In Fall 2005, the new Visual Center was inaugurated.
Dedicated to creating the world’s most comprehensive resource center
of cinematic work related to the Holocaust, the Center allows access
to survivor testimonies, and Holocaust related films of all genres, as
well as enabling database research and viewing of the entire film
collection.
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Promotion of research by top scholars at the newly
renovated and expanded premises of the International Institute for
Holocaust Research, which was officially opened in April 2001. The
Institute also publishes some 40 books a year.
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A new International School for Holocaust Studies - the
only school of its kind in the world – which was officially opened in
December 1999, and offers extensive activities for teacher training as
well as the development of innovative educational materials, including
multimedia programs. The Reflections After the Holocaust Center,
opened in September 2005, is an interactive learning center allowing
visitors to delve into the historical and moral issues and dilemmas
that arise from the Holocaust.
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A new
entrance plaza and Visitors’ Center (Mevoah): The new entrance
plaza serves as a bridge between the everyday world and the uniqueness
of the memorial site, and prepares the visitor for the Yad Vashem
experience. Opened in September 2003, it also provides visitor
services and amenities.
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A new Museum Complex, designed by internationally
renowned architect Moshe Safdie. Opened in March 2005, the Complex
includes the state-of-the-art Holocaust History Museum - four times
the size of the old historical museum. The new museum depicts the
Holocaust from a Jewish personal perspective through authentic
artifacts and testimonies -presented in pictures, texts, multimedia
and personal objects – telling the stories of the victims behind them;
a new Hall of Names, located in the Holocaust History Museum. The
Hall includes a computer room where the Central Database of Shoah
Victims’ Names can be searched and new names added; the new Museum of
Holocaust Art – displaying the world’s most extensive collection of
Holocaust art; the Exhibitions Pavilion, currently displaying “My
Homeland: Holocaust Survivors in Israel”; and a Synagogue, opened in
June 2005, that serves as a place for private prayer, and memorial
services for destroyed communities. The Synagogue displays Torah Arks
and judaica recovered from destroyed synagogues in Europe.
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Complete computerization of Yad Vashem’s documentation
system, including the millions of names of Jewish Holocaust victims in
Yad Vashem’s Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names. To date,
more than 3 million names have been digitized. The database was added
into the Yad Vashem website in November 2004 – providing public access
to the most comprehensive and advanced Holocaust victim names
retrieval system in the world. In May 2008, the Yad Vashem Photo
Archives was uploaded to
www.yadvashem.org.
Yad Vashem’s Multi-Year
Development Plan is a major effort, in which several dedicated partners
took part. The major donors are the American Society for Yad Vashem, the
Israeli Society for Yad Vashem, and other Friends of Yad Vashem
Societies around the world. The Conference on Jewish Material Claims
Against Germany, which also helped enable the establishment of Yad
Vashem, provides considerable assistance in realizing the Development
Plan, as does the State of Israel.
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