‘Mecheln – Auschwitz 1942- 1944’

The Jewish Museum for Deportation and Resistance presents its most recent publication ‘Mecheln-Auschwitz 1942-1944’. This exceptional publication comprises 18.522 portraits of deportees and has been realised in conjunction with Academic and Scientific Publishers S.A. [ASP] and Brussels University Press [VUBPress].

 

 

‘Give them a face’ , a major archive project initiated by Ward Adriaens and completed under the auspices of Patricia Ramet formed the basis of this impressive set of books comprising 4 volumes and totalling 1530 pages. The collecting of the 18.522 photographs and the drawing up of the alphabetical list of 25.259 names of those who were deported from SS-Sammellager-Mecheln [ SS-Collection Camp Mechelen ] are the result of 14 years research by the JMDV  in the most important archive records about the anti-Semitic and racial persecution which prevailed in Belgium and Northern France during WW II.

 

 

During the years 1939 – 1944 Europe experienced a persecution of its people based on race and anti-Semitism, the like of which had never before been seen, and, needless to say, Belgium did not escape the resulting effects of this genocide. Approximately 56.000 people were registered as Jews by the Sipo-SD. The Gypsies had, prior   to1940, already been identified by the Belgian police. During the German occupation of Belgium 24.908 Jews and 351 Gypsies were deported from SS-Sammellager Mecheln to Auschwitz. 1.223 deportees survived.

 

 

The project has made it possible to digitize 18.522 portraits of the deportees from Mechelen. These pictures are, in the main, from the archives and files of the Aliens Police which were made available to the JMDR by the Aliens Affairs Service. It was in this manner that we were literally able to give the deportation ‘a face’. 

 This work has finally enabled us to realise the publication of the 4 volumes of the album ‘Mecheln-Auschwitz 1942-1944’. Part I, written by Dr. Maxime Steinberg and Dr. Laurence Schram deals with the destruction of the Jews and Gypsies from Belgium. Parts II and III contain the 18.522 portraits which we have so far located and been able to correlate. The pictures have been classified according to the transport on which they were deported and the individual transport number which was allocated to them. This information is based on the original German transport lists and the databank Dossin Barracks Deportees. This was drawn up on the basis of the carbon copies of the original transport lists.

 ‘Mecheln-Auschwitz 1942-1944’ has, therefore, as an important collection of historical facts pertaining to our recent history, an enormous pedagogic value. With this in mind the Flemish Government has decided to furnish all the public libraries in Flanders with a copy of this work. In this way it is hoped that schools and other centers of education will avail them selves of the opportunity to consult this work and and to always remember the persecution to which the Jews and Gypsies have been subjected.

 

The Irish Times about the National Holocaust Memorial Day Commemoration in Dublin, Ireland

Never forgetting: “wickedness and cruelty” recalled by President:

 

Four Irish resident survivors of Nazi concentration camps took part in the National

Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration at the Mansion House last night.

In a moving ritual at the Dublin event, Tomi Reichental, Suzi Diamond, Jan

Kaminski and Zoltan Zinn-Collis spoke separately and at intervals the words “I am

here today not because of who I am but because of what I am. I am a survivor of the

Holocaust.”

 

In the keynote address, President McAleese said: “Our job is not done until all can

sleep easy in their beds at night and freely go about their business by day.’’

She said: “The wickedness and cruelty of the Holocaust lacerate our hearts to this day,

as they should. God forbid that any generation will ever know the indulgence of

forgetting or ever cease to probe how it all came to be. For somewhere in our world

today there are men and women who are teaching their children to hate the otherness

of others and, in that toxic teaching, there germinates the seed that makes such a

nightmare possible all over again.”

 

She continued: “Never forgetting is our duty and our responsibility . . . Europe’s laws

and protective structures have progressed considerably these 60 years, but for all that,

hate-filled ideas are still touted and individuals still live in fear and our job is not done

until all can sleep easy in their beds at night and freely go about their business by

day.’’

 

The Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr Eibhlín Byrne, welcomed all at the beginning. Claes

Ljungdahl, the Swedish Ambassador to Ireland, read the Stockholm Declaration of

2000 which promised to remember the victims and survivors of the Holocaust and

reaffirmed humanity’s common aspiration to tolerance and democracy.

 

Seán Aylward, general secretary at the Department of Justice, which has been

associated with the event since it began in 2003, promised continuing support.

Brief readings were given by Minister for Integration Conor Lenihan, Olwyn Enright

TD, Ruairí Quinn TD, former Minister for Equality and Law Reform Mervyn Taylor,

former Equality Authority chief executive Niall Crowley, Ms Justice Catherine

McGuinness, Raphael Siev, curator of the Jewish Museum, author Jennifer Johnston,

poet Micheál Ó Siadhail, and others.

 

Music was by Moya Brennan and Mikey Smith. A candle-lighting ceremony

commemorated all who died in the camps.

 

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times

 

With best wishes,

 

Laura Nagle

HETI, Administrator

Holocaust Educational Trust of Ireland
Clifton House
Lower Fitzwilliam Street
Dublin 2
Tel: +353 1 6690593
http://www.holocausteducationaltrustireland.org/

International Holocaust Remembrance Day – an important reminder

Today, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we commemorate the victims of the most horrific and extensive genocide the world has ever seen.

The mass murder of Jews and other groups who did not fit into the Nazi understanding of humanity or society will always be an indelible stain in the history books of Europe.

Today we remember the many who were persecuted, deported and exterminated. We remember the more than 700 Norwegian Jews who were killed, we remember the Romani people, the disabled, the mentally ill, and all the others who fell victim to the regime’s cruelty.

Sixty-six years ago – in the autumn and winter of 1942/43 – Norwegian Jews were brutally stowed onto ships at the quayside in Oslo and transported out of the country. Only a few returned. This took place during the German occupation, but Norwegians carried out the arrests.

Genocide – as a concept and as a system – originated in the minds of men. The Holocaust was not a natural disaster; it was a man-made disaster.

The story of the Holocaust – or Shoah in Hebrew – tells of the horrendous consequences of anti-Semitism in our recent past. Today we are reminded that many were guilty and that we all have a responsibility. That we all have a duty to prevent anti-Semitism from ever regaining a foothold – either here or in any other country. 

The ideas that led to the Holocaust have not disappeared. They find expression in new ways and in new places. They must be fought through awareness-raising, knowledge, information and firm resistance.

In March this year, Norway will take over the chair of the 26-country-strong Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research. We take this task very seriously and with great humility, and with a keen awareness of the challenges ahead.

The fight is not over. Society must maintain focus on these issues and encourage debate.
We must be wary of attitudes and actions that can breed renewed anti-Semitism or other ideologies and mindsets that exclude or segregate groups of people and spread hatred and intolerance.

Religious and other groups in our own society feel stigmatised, insecure and afraid. We must combat this development both as a society and as individuals.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day – 27 January – serves an important reminder to us all.

UK: Speech on Holocaust Memorial Day

http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/newsroom/latest-news

Holocaust Memorial Center Budapest

 

January 2009

Topic: Peaceful living together along the history

Commemoration at the Center on January 27

ODIHR’s press release

On Holocaust Memorial Day, OSCE/ODIHR expresses concern about rise in anti-Semitic acts

Share Subscribe Print

WARSAW, 27 January 2009 – The head of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) expressed concern today about an increase in anti-Semitic acts across the OSCE region in comments released to mark the International Holocaust Memorial Day.

“Today’s Holocaust Memorial Day enables us to reflect upon lessons of the past and provides an important opportunity to face present-day manifestations of hatred. It should make us further intensify our efforts to combat such acts,” said Ambassador Janez Lenarcic, ODIHR’s Director.

Recently reported anti-Semitic incidents have included physical and verbal attacks as well as acts of arson and vandalism targeting synagogues, cemeteries and Holocaust memorial sites. While such attacks have been publicly reported by governments and civil society, the perpetrators of many of these acts have not been identified and investigations are ongoing.

“We call on all participating States to step up their efforts to thoroughly investigate and respond to anti-Semitic and all other hate crimes committed within their territories,” said Lenarcic.

ODIHR promotes remembrance of the Holocaust and assists OSCE participating States in their efforts to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Days.

The Office together with the Israeli Holocaust memorial institution Yad Vashem prepared guidelines for educators providing suggestions on how to prepare Holocaust Memorial Day in schools and communities. It also published an overview on governmental practices on Holocaust remembrance throughout the OSCE regions. Both documents are available on the OSCE website: http://www.osce.org/odihr/20104.html

ODIHR supports and assists OSCE participating States and communities affected by hate crime and acts of intolerance through its various tools, including educational resources, training for law enforcement officers and legislative guidelines.

Back

Ambassador Janez Lenarcic, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, at a news conference in Vienna, 10 November 2008. (OSCE/Mikhail Evstafiev)

Links

Source link: Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights

• Holocaust education and remembrance
  The ODIHR collects and disseminates good practices on Holocaust education and remembrance.

Contacts

Jens-Hagen Eschenbaecher
Spokesperson

• OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights
• Public Affairs Unit
• Aleje Ujazdowskie 19
• 00-557 Warsaw
• Poland
• Tel: +48 22 520 0640
• +48 603 683 122 (mobile)
• Fax: +48 22 520 06 05
• Send E-mail

UN 2009 Calendar of Holocaust Remembrance Events

The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme

Monday 26 January

• 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.: Videoconference with francophone UN Information Centres, the Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme, Mémorial de la Shoah (Paris) at UNESCO, Paris.
  For information, please contact prudhommem@un.org.
• 1:15 p.m. : “Roads to death: The Pharrajimos in Hungary” an exhibition on the persecution and murder of the Roma and Sinti, sponsored by the Permanent Mission of the Hungary to the United Nations. Invitation only by the Mission. 
  Venue:  227 E. 52nd Street
• USHMM exhibition: “Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race”.  This exhibition shows how the Nazi regime, with the support of doctors and scientists, aimed to change the genetic makeup of the population through measures known as “racial hygiene” or “eugenics”.  The categories of persons and groups regarded as biologically threatening to the health of the nation were expanded to include Jews, Roma, the disabled and other minorities.  These policies resulted in forced sterilization and murder, and ultimately in the Holocaust.  Open to public from 26 January through 22 March 2009.
  For information, please contact wichmann@un.org.
  Venue: UN Public Lobby at visitors’ entrance 1st Ave. and 46 Street

Tuesday 27 January

• 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.: Memorial Ceremony:  “An Authentic Basis for Hope: Holocaust Remembrance and Education”
  Register at holocaustremembrance@un.org or by fax 212-963-0536.
  Venue: Because the General Assembly Hall is closed for repairs, the Holocaust memorial ceremony will now be held in the Trusteeship Council Chamber. Seating for the event will be on a first-come, first-served basis, as is the usual practice. Once capacity has been reached in the Chamber, guests will be directed to Conference Room 4, where they will be able to view the ceremony on video screen.
  We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause.
• 1:15 p.m.-2:30 p.m.: Panel discussion “The Holocaust-The Rescued and the Rescuers”, organized by B’nai B’rith International, with Kurt and Margarete Goldberger, survivors; Rachel Ostreicher Bernheim, Chair/CEO of the Raoul Wallenberg Committee of the United States; Paul Shapiro, Director of the Centre for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Bulgaria to the United Nations.
  Please register at rsvpun@bnaibrith.org or by tel.               212-557-0019       .
  Venue: United Nations Conference Room 5
• 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.: “Irena’s Vow”, a reading of a play by Dan Gordon, with Tovah Feldshuh and directed by Michael Parva.   Irena’s vow is the story of a Polish Catholic woman who risks her life to protect the lives of twelve Jewish refugees whom she secretly took under her care while working as head housekeeper for a prominent German major.  The reading is presented by The Directors Company and The Invictus Theatre Company.  The event is sponsored by the Permanent Mission of the United States to the United Nations, the Permanent Mission of Poland to United Nations, and the Polish Cultural Institute.
  Please register with Ms. Millie Meyers at meyersm@state.gov or by tel.               212-415-4085       
  Venue: Dag Hammarskjöld Library Auditorium

Wednesday 28 January

• 1:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. : Holocaust Survivors’ Memoirs Project Book Signing.
  Mrs. Frances Irwin will present and sign copies of her memoir included in the volume titled Stolen Youth: Five Women’s Survival in the Holocaust at the UN Book Shop. Every January in observance of the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, volumes from the Holocaust Survivors’ Memoirs Project are on display in the Public Lobby and for sale in the Book Shop. Mrs. Jeannie Rosensaft, one of the editors of the memoirs, will discuss the Project, which is an initiative of Nobel Prize laureate and United Nations Messenger of Peace Elie Wiesel, and Menachem Rosensaft, Chairman of the Project’s Editorial Board. Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority, joined the Project in 2004, which has published eleven books with 17 survivors’ memoirs to date. Local survivors, students and the general public are invited to attend the event, to be moderated by Juan Carlos Brandt, Chief, Advocacy and Special Events, Outreach Division, United Nations Department of Public Information.
  For more information, please contact holocaustremembrance@un.org.
  Venue: UN Bookshop (1st basement, visitors’ entrance). Open to the public.

Thursday 29 January

• 10:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.: DPI-NGO briefing on “The Sephardic Jews in Greece: The Untold Story”.  From early in its history, Thessaloniki (the second-largest city in Greece) embraced the Jews who sought its hospitality. For more than 20 centuries, the city has been—literally and figuratively—a safe harbor for the itinerant and persecuted Jews from all over the world. As a result it was honoured with the title “La Madre de Israel,” [or “mother of cities amongst the people of Israel”], as it was the most populous city of Sephardic Jewry in the world. Thessaloniki lost 94 percent of its Jews in the Holocaust. Today only some 1,200 remain and their story is little known. The Briefing focuses on their story and feature personal accounts of some of those who survived the Holocaust in Thessaloniki. The Permanent Representative of Greece to the United Nations will make a statement.
  Non-UN grounds pass holders please register at HU2@un.org by Monday 26 January COB at the latest.
  Venue: Conference Room 1.
• 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.:  Film screening to be announced.
  Please register at holocaustremembrance@un.org or by fax 212-963-0536.
  Venue: Dag Hammarskjöld Library Auditorium

UN Refuses to Acknowledge Romani Victims of the Holocaust at Annual Ceremony

Posted Thu, 01/15/2009 – 9:59pm

On 27 January 2009 the United Nations’ will hold its annual observance of the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. in the General Assembly Hall in New York. No Romani representation was sought. Requests asking why and for inclusion from several Romani agencies, including the Union Romani and the IRU to both Ms. Mona Gillet of the Department of Public Information and to Ms. Kimberly Mann, manager of the United Nations Holocaust Outreach Programme, have remained unanswered. The one answer that was received consisted of a reminder that the UN had underwritten an exhibit on Roma at the Hungarian Mission, and had hosted the reception of a Romani delegation earlier in the year.

This year, the theme of the memorial ceremony will be “An Authentic Basis for Hope: Holocaust Remembrance and Education” and the keynote speaker will be Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council. Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information Kiyo Akasaka will open the event, which will include a message from United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Statements will be made by H.E. Mr. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, President of the 63rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, and H.E. Ambassador Gabriela Shalev, Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations. Ruth Glasberg Gold, a survivor of the Transnistria camps (in the former USSR) and WWII veteran Leonid Rosenberg, liberator of a concentration camp, will share their personal stories. Cantor Ya’akov Motzen will recite “Kel Ma’le Rachamim” and “Ani Ma’amin”. The ceremony will also include musical performances by Elisha Abas (piano) and Yoon Kwon (violin).

The Holocaust was the implementation of the Final Solution, Hitler’s genocidal programme intended to eradicate the genetic contaminants in his plan to create a master race. Only Jews and Romanies were subject to the Final Solution; both peoples lost the same percentage of their total number. Nothing was done to acknowledge the Romani survivors after 1945. The United Nations’ decision to exclude Romanies from Holocaust remembrance only perpetuates the marginalization of our people in the historical record.

Contact the United Nations and find out why the Romani are being excluded and those that were murdered are not being remembered.

Ms. Mona Gillet
Department of Public Information
gillet@un.org

Ms. Kimberly Mann
Manager of the United Nations Holocaust Outreach Programme
kmann@un.org

students creating the museum

Here is the YouTube link to our first video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLqhMYVm0AQ

Classroom Holocaust Museum

Miljenko and his students in Croatia are preparing to open their Classroom Holocaust Museum on January 27, 2009.  I am including a couple of pictures he took and made available to me online.  Please consider contacting him and is class on a job very well done!  You can reach him at: info@inter-nos.biz.  The website he has dedicated to the Classroom Holocaust Museum project is: http://www.classroom-holocaust-museum.com/.