Launch of Yad Vashem's new Spanish website in Madrid, Spain. Center: Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Morantinos.

President of the World Jewish Congress Ronald Lauder speaks at Yad Vashem

Holocaust survivor from Yugoslavia Miriam Aviezer shows the exhibition “BESA - A Code of Honor: Albanian Muslims Who Rescued Jews in the Holocaust” to two students from the Arab comprehensive school in Ramle

Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council, addresses a U.N. ceremony in observance of the International Day of the Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.
UN Photo/Paulo Filgueiras

Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council, gave the keynote address at the UN General Assembly in New York, in a special ceremony marking the fourth “International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust.” The theme of the Holocaust memorial ceremony was “An Authentic Basis for Hope: Holocaust Remembrance and Education”. Statements were also made by H.E. Mr. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, President of the 63rd session of the UN General Assembly, H.E. Ambassador Gabriela Shalev, Permanent Representative of Israel to the UN, Holocaust survivors and WWII veterans.

Yad Vashem launched a new Spanish website in Madrid, Spain. The launch took place in the presence of Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos, Pilar Sanz-Briz, daughter of Spanish Righteous Among the Nations Angel Sanz-Briz, and Israeli Ambassador to Spain, H.E. Rafael Schutz. The website contains extensive material in Spanish, including a chronological and thematic Holocaust narrative, survivors’ testimonies, hundreds of photographs and documents, information about Righteous Among the Nations, details about Yad Vashem activities, a visitors’ guide to Yad Vashem, virtual exhibitions and more.
To view the website, click here.

A new educational portal in Russian was uploaded to Yad Vashem’s virtual school.  The portal was developed with the generous support of the Genesis Foundation, and includes encyclopedic entries, photographs, testimonies, diaries and last letters, historical documents, maps and FAQs.
To enter the portal, click here

BESA: A Code of Honor - Muslim Albanians Who Rescued Jews During the Holocaust, a Yad Vashem photographic exhibition, opened at the Municipal Museum in city of Ramle with Hebrew and Arabic subtitles. The event took place in the presence of Arab students from Ramle, Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev, Mayor of Ramle Yoel Lavi, Director-General of the Ramle Municipality Ofer Todar, Director of the Science, Culture and Sport Ministry’s Cultural Administration Micha Yinon, and Education Ministry supervisor Jumaa Al-Barda, a Ramle resident. Referring to the Holocaust period in Albania, Shalev said: “The Albanian story is unique in that Albanian society was tolerant for the most part, and was not a partner to the antisemitism. The magic word “Besa” (code of honor) ruled.”

Delegates of the General Assembly of the World Jewish Congress, headed by WJC President Ronald Lauder, held a special plenary session and memorial ceremony at Yad Vashem.. The program included addresses by Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev, Academic Advisor to Yad Vashem Prof. Yehuda Bauer, WJC President Ronald Lauder, and Claims Conference Treasurer Roman Kent.

At the European Center of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Shulamit Imber, Pedagogical Director at Yad Vashem’s International School for Holocaust Studies, addressed some 1,000 participants in the official ceremony marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Yad Vashem opened a number of traveling exhibitions around the world to mark the fourth International Holocaust Remembrance Day:

• "An Arduous Road: Samuel Bak - 60 Years of Creativity" opened at the University of Mainz, Germany
• The photographic exhibition "BESA - A Code of Honor: Albanian Muslims Who Rescued Jews in the Holocaust" opened in New York at Columbia University's School for International Relations.
• The "Auschwitz Album" exhibition opened at the Holocaust Museum in Los Angeles.
• The exhibition "Private Tolkatchev at the Gates of Hell" opened in the city of Neustrelitz in Germany
• “Auschwitz: From the Depth of the Abyss” opened at the Headquarters of the European Parliament in Brussels.
• The “No Child’s Play” traveling exhibition opened in the City Hall in Linz, Austria.

Generation to Generation (Dorot Hemshech) held a special evening to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day at Beth Hatefusoth in Tel Aviv. The theme of the evening was: “To Tell Their Story”. Addresses were given by President of the organization Shmulik Sorek, Tova Leshem of the International School for Jewish Peoplehood Studies at Beth Hatefusoth, and Ephraim Kaye of Yad Vashem’s International School for Holocaust Studies. In addition, The Green Dumpster Mystery, winner of the 2008 Avner Shalev Yad Vashem Chairman’s Award for Artistic Achievement in a Holocaust-related film, was screened.