JERUSALEM, Jan 22 — Yad Vashem, the sprawling Holocaust memorial centre in Jerusalem, recounts the extermination of six million Jews by Nazi Germany.
The complex spread across 20 hectares is due to host dozens of world leaders this week to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, a concentration and death camp built by the Third Reich in Poland, where more than a million people perished.
Here are key facts about Yad Vashem, established by the Israeli state in 1953 with a mandate to foster remembrance and research of the Holocaust.
4.2 million names
Visitors to Yad Vashem move through an exhibit tracing a historical narrative from the rise of the Nazis in the early 1930s to the confinement of Jews in ghettos and the mass slaughter perpetrated in gas chambers in the camps.
“Our goal is to tell the story of the Holocaust but also to be a beacon that reminds the world what happens when anti-Semitic and murderous ideologies hold power,” Yad Vashem spokeswoman Iris Rosenberg told AFP.
The final feature of the main exhibit is the iconic Hall of Names, where the identities of more than 4.2 million Holocaust victims are documented in rows of files that encircle visitors in a domed structure.
Yad Vashem researchers are continuing to try to identify the remaining unnamed victims.
A separate underground cavern holds a memorial site for the estimated 1.5 million children killed during the Holocaust.
The perpetually dark cavern is lit only by the reflection of candles, while the names, ages and countries of origin of the murdered children are continuously read out.
‘Righteous’ Princess Alice
The memorial centre, which is free to enter, receives more than a million visitors annually from around the world, Rosenberg said.
In addition to testimonials of survivors and a Holocaust library with some 120,000 titles in 54 languages, Yad Vashem also includes an exhibit dedicated to those who tried to save Jews from Nazi extermination.
The list, known as the Righteous Among the Nations, counts more than 40,000 names, including prominent figures such as Oskar Schindler and Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg.
Britain’s Prince Charles, who will attend tomorrow’s ceremony at Yad Vashem in a royal visit, also has a personal connection to the Righteous list.
His grandmother Princess Alice was posthumously honoured by Yad Vashem in 1993 for sheltering a Jewish family in Greece from the Nazis.
According to Yad Vashem, the Gestapo grew suspicious that Alice was protecting the Cohen family at her home and questioned her, but the princess pretended not to understand them, citing her partial deafness.
Prince Charles is also due to visit his grandmother’s grave in Jerusalem.
‘Unprecedented’ event
A trip to Yad Vashem is considered a near-mandatory stop for foreign dignitaries visiting the Jewish state.
But Rosenberg said tomorrow’s event was nevertheless “unprecedented” because of its scale, with world leaders from more than 50 states expected to attend.
“The presence of these leaders underscores that anti-Semitism is not just a problem for Jews but of society as a whole,” she told AFP.
“When Jews are in danger, societies are in danger.” — AFP
