This week we're marking the International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the liberation of Auschwitz. In Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest of the death camps, more than 1,100,000 Jews, 70,000 Poles, 25,000 Sinti and Roma (Gypsies) and some 15,000 prisoners of war from the USSR and other countries were murdered. For extensive online resources about Auschwitz-Birkenau click the link in our bio. . . #InternationalHolocaustRemembranceDay #ihrd #hmd2021 #yadvashem #holocaustmemorialday #holocaustremembranceday #auschwitz #auschwitzbirkenau 
From the Yad Vashem Archives: the original plans of structures in Auschwitz-Birkenau that were mostly prepared in the fall of 1941. The collection consists of 29 documents. Architectural plans, drawn on a scale of 1:100, show details for expanding the camp, including the addition of a crematorium and a gas chamber. The plans were found in 2008 in an abandoned apartment in Berlin and purchased by the German media corporation “Axel Springer”, the publisher of the newspaper “Bild”. They were given to the Prime Minister Netanyahu in 2009, and preserved since then for perpetuity in the Yad Vashem Archives. . . #yadvashem #auschwitz #auschwitzbirkenau #history #worldwar2 #holocaust #architecture 
“For each of us a stay in the Children's Home was like a new beginning – a reentry into life.” (Ewa Goldberg) Among the six million victims of the Holocaust were some 1.5 million Jewish children. Children and teenagers experienced the Holocaust in all its brutality: in ghettos, in camps, in hiding and wandering from place to place. They were the victims of abuse, humiliation, forced labor, starvation, and neglect. Those who survived under assumed identities and thanks to the kindness of strangers lived in perpetual terror of their Jewish identity being discovered, of being informed on, and of being caught and taken away. In order to survive, they learned to be silent, to suppress their feelings and to trust no one. After the Holocaust, a number of homes were established to take care of these children. The caregivers, counsellors and teachers who staffed them were mainly Holocaust survivors themselves. What they lacked in experience they made up for in empathy. Click the link in our bio or check the Stories to explore the new online exhibition “My Lost Childhood: Children’s Homes for Holocaust Survivors” . . #yadvashem #hmd2021 #hmd #children #holocaustsurvivors #exhibition #onlineexhibition #holocaust 
On 21 January 1941, the nationalist Iron Guard rebelled against the Ion Antonescu government in Bucharest, Romania. During the rebellion, riots broke out against the Jews. Jews were seized from the synagogues and the streets, some based upon previously prepared lists. About 100 Jews were loaded on trucks, and murdered in different locations around Bucharest. While the murders were taking place, a furious mob went on the rampage against Jewish homes and businesses, looting, raping and destroying. The riots lasted for 3 days, during which a total of 127 Jews were murdered. . . #yadvashem #history #bucharest #romania #worldwar2 #holocaust #synagogue 
Children of the home in Chamonix, France playing in the snow, January 1944. In summer 1942, Juliette Vidal and Marinette Guy ran a summer camp for Jewish and Christian children in a chalet in Chamonix. When they were informed that most of the Jewish children had lost their parents in the deportations, Vidal and Guy converted the chalet into a children's home, which was run by Mirelle Levy. The children's home in Chamonix provided a safe haven for dozens of children, most of them Jewish, from late 1942 until the liberation of France in the summer of 1944. On January 2, 1969, Yad Vashem recognized Marinette Guy and Juliette Vidal as Righteous Among the Nations. . . #yadvashem #holocaust #shoah #france #children #chamonix #worldwar2 #WWII #bnw #righteousamongthenations #childrenhome 
Plzen, Czechoslovakia, Deportation of Jews to Theresienstadt under the supervision of German policemen, 18-26/01/1942. Czech guards are positioned in the trees to prevent any Jews from fleeing. Transport R left Plzen for the Theresienstadt ghetto on January 18, 1942. It was the first of three big transports that left Plzen for the ghetto, which had been established in November 1941. Transport S left Plzen on January 22, and Transport T – four days later, on January 26. Each of the 3 transports consisted of 1000 Jews, residents from Plzen as well as from towns and villages in the region, among them Kralovice (Kraltowitz), Blovice (Blowitz), Radnice (Radnitz) and Rokycany (Rokitzan), Horovice (Horowitz), Stenovice and Spalene Porici (Brennporitschen). . . #yadvashem #history #holocaust #theresienstadt #plzen #czechoslovakia #january #holocaust #shoa 
Yad Vashem, the Square of Hope. Moshe Safdie, the architect (@safdiearchitects): "Following the visit to the Holocaust History Museum, I felt that what was needed was a place of decompression - a pause. An orchard of shade trees and concrete benches provide a place of rest." . . #yadvashem #moshesafdie #architect #architecture #jerusalem #israel #sunset 
Workers in a wood and leather workshop in the Lodz ghetto. The Lodz ghetto became a major production center under the German occupation. As early as May 1940, the Germans established factories in the ghetto and used Jewish residents for forced labor. Living conditions in the ghetto were unbearable. Most of the ghetto had neither running water nor a sewer system. Slave labor, overcrowding, and starvation were the dominant features of life. The vast majority of ghetto residents worked in German factories, receiving only scanty food rations from their employers. More than 20 percent of the ghetto's population died as a direct result of the horrific living conditions. . . #yadvashem #history #lodzghetto #holocaust #shoah 
Alfred Aharon Brauner (1910-1982), The Pancho Refugee Ship, 1940-1942, pencil on paper, 20x28.5 cm. Yad Vashem Art Collection. The Pancho sailed from the upper Danube in Bratislava, Slovakia in mid-May 1940 with 509 illegal immigrants on board, including refugees or deportees from Germany who had been released from Sachsenhausen or Buchenwald. After sailing for about a month, the ship reached Romania, but the Romanian authorities prevented them from anchoring, and the passengers had to sail on to Yugoslavia, and from there to the Greek port city of Piraeus until it ceased to operate due to its deteriorating condition. In January 1942, the Italians transferred the Pancho refugees to the Ferramonti di Tarsia detention camp in Italy and thus saved them from deportation and extermination. In 1944, four years after they began their journey, the Pancho immigrants finally arrived in Eretz Israel (Mandatory Palestine). The account of the Pancho became a symbol of the Italian fleet’s generosity and kindness. . . #yadvashem #history #israel #museumcollection #art #artcollection 
Dr. Erich Klibansky, headmaster of the "Yavne" Jewish gymnasium in Köln, Germany, parting from his pupils, who are leaving for England. Köln, January 1939. Dr. Menachem Erich Klibansky was the headmaster of the "Yavne" gymnasium from 1929 until its closure in 1942. Klibansky saved dozens of his students, arranging for their passage to England as part of the Kindertransport. Klibansky himself, his wife and their three sons were deported to the East and murdered. Click the link in our bio to read the story of Dr. Erich Klibansky. . . #yadvashem #children #teacher #school #köln #germany #kindertransport #holocaust #history #bnw 
Embroidered napkin that Blanka Marosi received from her daughters, Judith and Noemi, as a gift for her fortieth birthday on January 11th, 1945. Blanka and Ignac Marosi and their daughters lived in Nove Zamky, Czechoslovakia. In May 1944, when the deportations from the ghetto to camps in Poland began, the family managed to escape to the city of Nitra, but in October they were arrested. Ignac was sent to a number of camps in Germany and was murdered. Blanka and her daughters were deported to Bergen-Belsen. In January 1945, while they were still in the camp, Blanka marked her fortieth birthday. Blanka and her daughters survived the Holocaust. . . #yadvashem #yadvashemmuseum #artifacts #artifactscollection #holocaust #history #holocausthistory #novezamky #czechoslovakia #1945 #wwii #ww2 #worldwar2 #bergenbelsen 
Rzeszow, Poland, a Jew skiing in the ghetto. About 15.000 Jews lived in Rzeszow, when WWII broke out, representing more than one-third of the city’s population. They made a living from commerce, small-scale industry and artisanship, especially in the garment, food, wood, metal and leather sections. The Germans occupied Rzeszow on September 10, 1939. The town’s ghetto was established in December 1941, and by January 10, 1942, some 12.500 Jews were increased there. In June 1942, 10.000 to 12.000 Jews were deported to Rzeszow from the surrounding areas. Some 18.000 to 20.000 Jews are estimated to have been deported and murdered in the operations of July 1942. Of the Jews of Rzeszow, about 100 people survived, either in the ghetto, in hiding places, or in the camps. Another approximately 600 survived in the area under Soviet control. . . #yadvashem #history #rzeszow #ghetto #holocaust #shoa #winter #snow #ski #skiing #bnw 
The Szydłowiec ghetto (Poland) was surrounded on January 8, 1943. On January 13th the SS men entered the ghetto. Approximately 80 Jews, were murdered in the ghetto itself and en route to the train station. The SS men shot children and hospital patients. Ukrainians set upon the deportees, robbing them of their last belongings. Some 5,000 of the ghetto Jews were put on deportation trains and sent to their death in Treblinka. The Jewish community of Szydłowiec then ceased to exist. . . #yadvashem #history #holocaust #holocausthistory #jews #szydlowiec #szydłowiec #szydlowiecghetto #ghetto #january #1943 #treblinka #ww2 #worldwar2 
Behind the scenes: Noga Schusterman prepares an item from the Partisans’ Display in the Holocaust History Museum for storage. During the lockdown period, urgent preparations were made to protect the Yad Vashem Artifacts and Art Collections – invaluable assets of Jewish heritage – the museological spaces and the various exhibits. The emergency team drafted and implemented an action plan in accordance with emergency procedures issued by ICOM (International Council of Museums, @icomofficiel). Items were taken from the exhibitions where they were on display and placed in storage. Other display cases were sealed against dust, and larger artifacts covered to protect them. Throughout this ongoing period, checks are continuously carried out in all of the exhibition spaces: the Holocaust History Museum, the Museum of Holocaust Art and other displays on the Mount of Remembrance. . . #yadvashem #museum #museumcollection #icom #israel 
Berdichev (Ukraine) was liberated by the Red Army on this day, January 5, 1944. Pictured here: Nukhim and Chava Radzivilovski with their children – Mirra and Ikhel, Berdichev, 1928. Nukhim, Chava and Mirra were murdered in August 1941. Ikhel survived and submitted this photograph and Page of Testimony in memory of his parents and sister murdered in the Holocaust. In the 1939, about 23,000 Jews lived in Berdichev, comprising 37.5 percent of the total population. On July 7, 1941, the Germans occupied Berdichev. About one third of the city’s Jewish population, including refugees from Poland who had arrived there during first month of World War II, managed to evacuate or escape. The first days of the occupation witnessed wanton murders of Jews by German soldiers. By August 22, 1941, a ghetto had been established in the town. From August 1941 to June 1942, the Jewish population of Berdichev was annihilated in a number of murder operations. . . #yadvashem #berdichev #ukraine #holocaust #holocausto #shoa #familyphoto #family #bnw 
On this day, 03/01/1943, a Jewish baby was left on Adrianus and Petronella van der Wel’s doorstep with a note “Please take care of her!” The van der Wels (pictured here), who lived in the outskirts of Rotterdam with their 4-year-old son, had agreed to take in a Jewish baby to hide from the Germans. A Jewish couple David and Rebecca Vlessing from Amsterdam were about to be deported, and had been persuaded to leave their baby daughter behind to be hidden. The baby was registered as a foundling, thus the van der Wels were able to get “legal” papers for the baby. Betty stayed with the van der Wels all through the war. Tragically Betty’s parents were murdered in the Sobibór death camp. At the end of 1946, a surviving uncle came for Betty, and it was agreed that the van der Wels would be her co-guardians. They all stayed in close touch. On August 10, 2003, Yad Vashem recognized Adrianus and Petronella van der Wel as Righteous Among the Nations. . . #yadvashem #righteousamongthenations #worldwar2 #wwii #jews #children #rotterdam #thenetherlands #netherlands #holland #amsterdam #otd