Shalom,

To mark the third UN commissioned International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Jan 27th 2009, I am sending you our project newsletter highlighting the expanded scope and global activities of the Shoah Victims' Names Recovery Project. We hope you will enjoy the new look and feel of our newsletter incorporating interactive links to online resources and media to help you promote this vital and historic project.

We have created a new Q&A section to address frequently asked questions regarding the submission of Pages of Testimony, including queries on adding photographs, duplicate submissions, and corrections/amendments to the Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names. You can access the Q&A to enhance your knowledge of the workings of the Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names as well as to better assist others interested in submitting Pages of Testimony. Please send additional questions you may have and we will post the answers on our website.

You are invited to view a new trilogy of documentary films produced by Boris Maftsir, director of the Shoah Victims' Names Recovery Project in the Occupied Territories of the Former Soviet Union. These short movies depict the pain of Shoah remembrance through the stories of those who miraculously survived impending death.

The films aim to convey the personal and collective importance of commemorating the names of Shoah victims. To order copies of the films on DVD please contact:

names.outreach@yadvashem.org.il

The Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names continues to help shed light on the fate of family lost during the Shoah years, with families reuniting as a result of discovering Pages of Testimony submitted by relatives they never knew existed. Nancy Diamond, of Washington, D.C. recently discovered an entire branch of surviving family members here in Israel following exhaustive genealogical research based on information available in the Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names.

Visit our photo gallery to view photos of worldwide project activity.

Read an article about Bar/bat mitzvah twinning projects, an increasingly popular way in which Jewish children and their families are strengthening their identification with the Jewish people by forging bonds with individual children killed in the Holocaust. For more information about how to plan a twinning bar or bat mitzvah please contact:
names.outreach@yadvashem.org.il

Visit the new online exhibit, which portrays Yad Vashem’s duty to preserve the memory of the Holocaust, through the use of the objects in the Artifacts Collection along with their poignant stories. The use of a personal story with a tangible, authentic artifact as its focus, with the addition of documents, photographs and testimonies, enables the visitors to understand fragments of the experiences of the survivors.

With warmest regards from Jerusalem,

Cynthia Wroclawski, Manager
The Shoah Victims' Names Recovery Project
cynthia.wroclawski@yadvashem.org.il
Visit our Community Outreach Guide