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YAD VASHEM
LAUNCHES ONLINE DATABASE OF 3 MILLION HOLOCAUST VICTIMS’
NAMES
Opens 11th Hour
Campaign to Gather More Names
(November 22, 2004 – Jerusalem)
Yad Vashem today uploaded its historic Central Database of
Shoah Victims’ Names to the Internet at a news conference in
Jerusalem. Available from anywhere in the world at
http://www.yadvashem.org, the Names’ Database, an
international undertaking led by Yad Vashem is an attempt to
reconstruct the names and life stories of all the Jews who
perished in the Holocaust. The Database currently contains
some 3 million names of Shoah victims.
While launching the Database,
Yad Vashem also opened an International 11th Hour
Campaign aimed at garnering as many more names of victims as
possible.
“Unable to express the complete
life story of each victim – of 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,” said Chairman of the Yad
Vashem Directorate Avner Shalev.
“We are reaching a crucial
historical hour. This is a race against time— we must record
as many names as possible before the generation that best
remembers them is no longer with us. We call on families
around the globe to help honor the memories of their
ancestors by recording their names,” said Shalev.
“The availability of the
Database to everyone everywhere through the internet is
critical to the effort to collect more names,” Shalev added.
The sophisticated technology
allows users worldwide to access a treasure trove of
millions of personal and historical documents archived in 14
languages using cutting-edge web search systems from the
convenience of any computer. Through interactive features,
users can perform comprehensive searches, submit
information, and take part in educational programs.
Using the latest technology and
a team of experts in geography, linguistics, and data
systems, Yad Vashem will continue to offer the most
comprehensive accounting of the lives and deaths of millions
of Holocaust victims, while seeking to collect those names
that are still missing.
The database offers dozens of
variations for each name entry that account for spelling,
languages, nicknames, synonyms and more. Entries may also be
searched by name of submitter, birth city, place of last
known residence and death camp.
Since 1955 Yad Vashem has been
actively collecting “Pages of Testimony” commemorating the
names and biographic details of Jews who perished during the
Holocaust. The martyred dead are remembered not as anonymous
numbers, but as individual human beings.
These Pages of Testimony are
filled out by family members, friends or neighbors, many of
them survivors of the Holocaust, and serve as symbolic
"tombstones" or identity cards for their loved ones.
As much information as is known
is recorded, including the name of the victim, his or her
date and place of birth, the place of residence before the
war, the profession, the parents' and spouses' names, and
where and when they perished during the Holocaust.
Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel
offered a special message for the Database launch. “These
pages are very important because they are very meaningful.
What do we believe in? We believe in names… Every name has a
story. And all these stories become history.”
Wiesel added, “Today will be a
special day… It is important because it creates a link not
only with the dead but also with the living… It can only
bring a heightened awareness and a deepened sense of
remembrance.”
Former President of the European
Parliament, former Minister in French government, and
current President of the Foundation for the Memory of the
Shoah, France, Holocaust survivor Simone Veil in a
special taped message, explained the importance of the
Database. “Today, November 22, for the first time, this
database is accessible to everybody and this is really
wonderful, marvelous, since people will certainly be able to
find relatives who have disappeared, whom they have not
heard any more about; and also, mostly, the memory of these
millions of assassinated Jews, will be thus immortalized.”
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon urged Jews around the world to join the effort to
document the names of victims. “It is our duty to ensure
that our sisters and brothers who were murdered in the
Holocaust will forever be remembered – their names, their
photographs, their life stories. We should use this
technology in the service of memory to plant their images in
our own hearts, and in the hearts of our children and
grandchildren. This is the little we can do for them.”
The database also includes a
unique feature – The Stories Behind the Names – which
enables users to embark on personalized learning sessions.
Through pictures and information from actual Pages of
Testimony, visitors can discover the people and the
communities the Nazis destroyed. The Stories Behind the
Names can be incorporated into a variety of informal and
formal educational frameworks.
In this vast endeavor, Yad
Vashem was joined by strategic technological partners:
Strauss Strategy, IBM, Netvision and IDEA. Present at the
press conference on Monday was Serge Klarsfeld, a
pioneer in the effort to document names of Holocaust
victims. His groundbreaking lists have been incorporated
into the Database. In addition to Avner Shalev, conference
participants were Yossie Hollander, a son of
Holocaust survivors, successful hi-tech entrepreneur and
supporter of the project, Dr. Yaacov Lozowick,
Director of the Archives Division, Alexander Avraham,
Director of the Hall of Names and Michael Lieber,
Chief Information Officer at Yad Vashem. The press
conference will be Webcast at
http://www.yadvashem.org as of 18:00 Israel time.
The uploading of the Database
was made possible by the generous support of the Victim List
Project of the Swiss Banks Settlement, under the supervision
of the Honorable Edward R. Korman, Chief Judge of the United
States District Court for the Eastern District of New York
and Mr. Yossie Hollander.
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