PRESS RELEASE
List of missing citizens presented to Yad Vashem
The memorial site in Israel is first institution to receive the “Directory of Jewish residents in Germany 1933-1945” from the German government and the Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future”
Berlin, 22.10.2008. A collection of data containing the personal details of altogether some 600,000 Jewish residents who lived in Germany between 1933 and 1945 is to be presented tomorrow to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial site in Jerusalem, Israel. The collection will be handed over to memorial site director Avner Shalev by culture minister Bernd Neumann and Dr Martin Salm, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future“. The presentation is to take place in the “Hall of Names”, in which the Jews who perished under National Socialism are remembered. As well as giving names and addresses of Jewish residents, the list also provides details of their emigration, detention and deportation, as well as information on where and when they died.
“This list is more than just a list of names or a residents directory. It is a memorial to those murdered and those forced into exile. The shame for the crimes committed by the Germans is mixed with grief for the loss that Germany inflicted upon itself,” explains Dr Salm. “The murderers wanted to eradicate the Jewish people and Jewish identity. They did not succeed. The Yad Vashem memorial site calls out to us: ‘Look – we are alive’”.
The directory of Jewish residents in Germany between 1933 and 1945, which was four years in the making, was produced by the Bundesarchiv (federal archives) on behalf of the Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future”. Around 2.5 million data records were collected from over a thousand different sources. Jewish institutions and interest groups were the driving force behind the initiative. The directory, which was handed over to the German government in September, will also be made available to other international memorial sites.
Press Release as a PDF file for download.
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