Holocaust
Israel has reportedly told the Gaza-based terrorist group it will respond forcefully to any attempt to disrupt the Fifth World Holocaust Forum in Jerusalem this week • Thousands of police, security forces deploy in Jerusalem ahead of the arrival of more than 40 heads of state.
Seven decades later, nearly all of them—the skeletal prisoners on one side of the barbed wire and their liberators on the other—are gone. The world remembers the date thanks to the United Nations, which designated it as International Holocaust Remembrance Day in 2005.
Gathering of heads of state in Jerusalem to mark 75 years since liberation of Auschwitz to be “largest diplomatic event in Israel’s history,” according to Israel’s Foreign Ministry • Yad Vashem chair: Resurgence of worldwide anti-Semitism makes event more important than ever.
“The choice by many victims of the Nazis to document their experiences through art was a form of resistance, and it was one that left a critically important set of records for future generations,” says Jack Kliger, president and CEO of the Museum of Jewish Heritage–A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in New York City.
While noting that anti-Semitic acts perpetrated in Ukraine is in decline, Israeli Ambassador Joel Leon stressed that the same cannot be said about overall anti-Semitic sentiment and rhetoric in the country.
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will also be there, according to Israeli President Reuven Rivlin’s office.
Efraim Zuroff, Eastern Europe director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, slammed the proposed legislation as the “final stage of a long attempt to whitewash massive complicity by Lithuanians” in the Holocaust.
“We’re committed to help the 80,000 or so survivors of the Holocaust who live in the United States achieve a measure of justice … when it comes to the material losses suffered during the Holocaust,” said Cherrie Daniels, the Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues.
The museum visits are the second step in the new anti-hate crimes curriculum for New York City public schools introduced by city officials.
Set in pre-World War II Germany, the game divides players into two teams. The fascists work to take over the government and make “Secret Hitler” chancellor; the liberals try to stop that player from taking power.
It features 60 original artifacts and 70 photographs, including maps, printed case files, hand-forged documents and a pair of goggles used to obscure Eichmann’s vision during his capture.
To mark his 95th birthday last year, Walter Bingham jumped from a plane to become the oldest Israeli on record to skydive.
