On 7 Shevat, Chairman of Yad Vashem Avner Shalev will deliver the keynote address at the United Nations event marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 70th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. The event at the UN General Assembly will take place with the participation of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin, survivors and liberators.

Yad Vashem will also open two new exhibitions – one to be displayed at the United Nations Headquarters in New York and the other at the Yad Vashem Museum of Holocaust Art in Jerusalem.

The new traveling exhibition “Shoah: How Was It Humanly Possible?” will open on January 26, 2015, at the United Nations Visitors’ Lobby in New York City. The exhibition, which uses texts, images, and video clips to recount a comprehensive history of the Holocaust from 1933-1945, will remain on display at the United Nations through February 2015.

“The Anguish of Liberation as Reflected in Art, 1945-1947” displayed in the Yad Vashem Museum of Holocaust Art, will open on January 27, as part of a special evening marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day at Yad Vashem. The evening will be held in conjunction with UNSCO, in the presence of members of the Diplomatic Corps and Thomas Geve, one of the survivor-artists. The exhibit, comprises works from the Yad Vashem Art Collection, features some 30 pieces produced at the time of liberation or in its immediate aftermath by 17 artists: 15 survivors, one liberator and one witness. These artworks depict the moment of liberation, as well as the devastation and loss the survivors found upon their return. Consequently, some works give voice to feelings of suffering and turmoil, while others relate to the artists’ newly found sense of freedom.

The diplomats will tour the new display and participate in a commemoration event at the Yad Vashem Synagogue, during which a live broadcast of Chairman Avner Shalev’s keynote address will be screened from the UN. The diplomats will also be addressed by Director of Yad Vashem’s International Institute for Holocaust Research, Dr. Iael Nidam Orvieto, and the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Robert Serry. Dozens of representatives from various countries will be in attendance, including Austria, Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Malta, the Netherlands, South Africa, Switzerland, United States, and Uruguay.

To cover the event at Yad Vashem on January 27 please register with the media relations office at 02 6443410 or [email protected]. Arrival at Yad Vashem at 17:00.

In addition, Yad Vashem researchers, historians and educators will participate in various events and ceremonies marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day around the world. Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council, Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, and Yad Vashem Chief Historian, Professor Dina Porat, will attend events in Prague and Terezin. Other Yad Vashem staff will travel to countries throughout Africa and Europe.

A special online event, the IRemember Wall on Yad Vashem’s Facebook page, will provide people across the globe with a unique opportunity to engage in online commemorative activity. Each participant will be “linked” to a name of one of the over 4.3 million men, women and children currently found in the Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names, thus creating an opportunity for personal commemoration.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)