Suggestions of Ways to Read the Pages of Testimony

A. Pages of Testimony will be distributed to the pupils in the audience, and they will stand up and read what is written on the page while carrying candles or lighting them. At the end of the reading, the student could put the Page of Testimony in a special place that will serve as an exhibition. It is best that The Pages of Testimony will be given ahead of time so that they can practice reading them - this is because the pages contain names of people and places to which the pupils are not accustomed.

OR

B. Screening Pages of Testimony one after the other, while the students read part of them aloud, at the same time lighting a candle for each of the children.

Explanation of the Pages of Testimony

The Pages of Testimony that have been gathered by Yad Vashem are submitted by the families or acquaintances of the victims. They contain key biographical details about the victims, their families, their lives and those who submitted the Pages of Testimony. While the Pages of Testimony serve as a symbolic memorial, they also portray the victims' personal life stories in a broader historical context.

Over two million Pages of Testimony have been submitted at Yad Vashem to date. Pages of Testimony and other material will soon be presented on the Yad Vashem website.

Educational Discussion

When we set out to learn the story of the Jewish victim during the Holocaust, we must create a situation in which the pupil is faced with an actual person - a person with a face, an identity, a past, a heritage and a family, an individual uniqueness. From the inconceivable ashes and loss, we must be able to depict to a certain extent the person's visage, family and community that were lost during the Holocaust. Our aim is to restore the names and faces of the human beings, in this way thwarting the Nazi plan to erase them and their memory.


Historical Outline

Some 12 million Jews lived in Europe before the Holocaust. In the years prior to the Holocaust, Jewish life was multifaceted with diverse outlooks and ways of life.

The Jews were an active part of the cultural, social and political life of the countries in which they lived, to an extent where some achieved honours in the areas of science, art and so on. A very partial list of names attests to this fact: Walter Benjamin, Janusz Korczak, Franz Kafka, Marc Chagall, Sigmund Freud, Leon Blum, Walther Rathenau, Boris Pasternak.

The 18th and 19th centuries produced changes in the civic status and personal identity of European Jews. These changes exposed the Jews to European culture and society and constituted a significant challenge to the Jewish community. The Jews chose various channels for molding their personal, religious and national identity, creating a multifarious world. This world was utterly destroyed during the Holocaust.
The diverse Jewish culture constituted an invaluable part of the European world.

In this discussion, we do not deal with the topic of antisemitism. Antisemitism constitutes a tragic component in the history of the Jews and must be taught, but when we present the Jewish world through antisemitic events only, we ignore the multifaceted and full life that existed. If we view the Jewish world in its entirety we create a link with the lost person that emphasizes creativity and life.

• For photographs of Jewish life before the Holocaust, click here.