n March 1944, a hideout concealing 35 A Genuine Partnership 2-3 Jews was discol'cred by the Nazis in The Metamorphosis of Memory 4 Warsaw. The occupants were taken to by Lisa Davidson I and Yvette Nahmia·Messinas The Archi~isl 5 PaWlak Prison and, several days later, were murdered amidst the ruins of the Warsaw "I Onl), Told Bits and Pieces" 6 Ghetto. Among [hem were the grea! historian The Testimonies Section " T he Yad Vashem Archives are Emanuel Ringelblum and his tamily. By that time, the central repository for the With Extra Care; 7 the OntO SlJabbat Arcbipes, collected in Warsaw safekeeping of all Holocaust The Consefl'ation Laborator), during the war under Ringclblum's tutdage, had documentation," It1bbi Dr. already bttn buried under the ruins. After the war, Sheltering the Ikcords; 8 Israel Miller, President of the Conference on The New Arcrom and Library Building some of this material was discovered and Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, photocopied, and the phOtocopies were sent on states emphatically. The Claims Conference . ' The Arcroves Go High Tech 9 to lsraeL the maIO donor organization of the new Romania's Judaica Exodus I()-ll The Ringclblum Archh'es, along with tens of Archives and Librar), building, has as its thousands of testimonies, docwnents, diaries, and objective the support and encouragement of The Boom in Holocaust Literature 12-13 photographs gathered by the surviyors immediately research, documentation, and education Eye Witness 13 after liberation, arc thc roots of Yad Vashem's about the Holocaust. Therefore, Yad Vashem More to Ik Done 14-15 Archives. h was also 3t that time that the library in g~neraJ , and its Archives and Library, i~ Highlights of Work Plan 2000 15 was established for the coIIecrion of all primed and parucuJar . t possible partner in bound material on the Holocaust. th "tment..o£thiS arcd goal. News 16-17 The Archives and Library are the information Friends World\\ide 18-19 repository on which the structure of remembrance EI'ents 20 rests. Over the decades since the war, and in accordance \lith the Yad Vashem Law (1953), the Archives and the Library hal'C m:eived numerous collections of diverse origins that document the A Gent Holocaust ftom different and complementary angles, as well the most comprehensi\'e collection of documenl3tion from various kinds of Jewish sources. A t I IS The knowledge in these databases represents inception in [he efforts of a deVOted team of professional 1951 , the historians, archi~ists, and librarians who purrue the C I aim s t is nOt incumbwt upon you to "I sacred labor of collecting, recording, classifying, Conference, complete the. w~rk, yet you are not fi'ct to evade It either," Rabbi Tanon organiDng, and making accessible the vast quantities then under the tells us in the Mishna. With the of material to the public. direction of completion of the new Archives and Library The new building, located on the northern Dr. Nahum building on the Yad Vashem campus, a part of slope of the Mount of Remembrance, \I'.lS built to Goldmann, the \\00;. tfM'Mds the "Yad Vashem 200!" master contain and prcscfl'e this copious material-as well had twO broad plan has bttn accomplished. as that still to come-and to assure appropriate objecril'cs. The But whereas the building to house the more conditions \lith state.af.the-an [echnoIogicaI tools, first was to than 55 million pages of documents has Ixen for its processing and presentation to scholars and gain indemnification for injuries inflicted upon erected, the documents, photographs, films, all interested persons. individual Jewish I~ctims of Nazi pef'S(:cution testimonies and 100,000 volumes of boob I would personall)' like to thank all those and restitution for Je\\~sh·owned properties aIrtady stored hc=re, hal't yet to be viewed, read, in\'O/l'ed \lithin and outside Yad Vashem who tool; confiscated or destroyed by the Nazis. Even and understood. pan in planning, designing, building, opening the IO(Ia}', the Claims Conference is still active in Now that the physical part of the work has new f.Jciliry, and, finally, transferring all this precious the slave labor talks, in the International concluded, the spiritual, mental, artistic effort­ material to its new facility. I would also like to Commission on Holocaust-Era Insurance that of writing boob, essays and commentarin, thank all of our partners and mends who supported Claims, and ongoing negotiations \lith Austria, creating films and theatre, music and art, science us and helped us to attain these impres.si\'C rcsuIts. among other efforts. and culture-has yet to be accomplished. Let us congratulate ourselves for having The second objective sct by the 23 The Yad Vashem Archives and Library acquired a functional Archives and Library building national and intcm3tional Je\\,LVl organiZ3tions comprise a potential wellspring of knowledge. and, concurrently, a beautiful edifice that v.~11 that make up the Claims Conference was to Howe'o'er, it is up to you-rcscarchers, scholars, contain the entirety of Holocaust testimony and obtain funds for the relief, rehabilitation, and teachers, students, and members of the general make it available to all of posterity in I sra~1 ilIld resettlement of Jewish victims of Nazi public-to draw from these resources and worldwide. persecution, and 10 aid in rebuilding Jewish disseminate this knowledge to the world. communities and institutions devastated by the Nazis. Yvette Nahmia·Messinas )v~ Sh"IIIV". Today, with the continued financial aid Managing Editor Amer Shalev of the Claims Conference, Jewish communities Chairman and institutions have bttn rebuilt. Still, there 2 Yad Vashem Directorate l Partners FUli" !itt_1m are c:Jdcrly sun'j\'Ors who lack basic human contributions in Israel. "J feel that the cemn! includr an open and ongoing ~ lIith the n«essities. To address their needs, the Claims p1Jce for Holocaust remembl"3.nce must be in surl'imr community, elaboratcs on the sp.=cial Conference SUPPOfU and encourages Jerusalem, the capital city of the Jewish state relationship between Yad Vashem's Archi\'cs organizations and institutions thaI establish of Israel," cxplains Dr. lSt:ld Miller. and the Claims Confe rence. "We wanted to programs 10 shelter and pl'O\idc essential S(n;ccs Saul Kagan, thc Oaims Conference Special put the mark of the Claims Conference on a to necdy. elderly Holocaust sunivors. Consultant and fornlet Ext'Clltil'i.' \rlCe President particular area of Yad Vashem," he says. Israel has a hislOncal partnership with the adds: "ne Claims Confcrence ll'aS the drcisil"e "Although all aspeClS of Yad Vashern arc Claims Confmocc. According to the Claims fuctor in t:Stablishing Yad Vashern's first building imfMlrtam, till: fuct that the Claims Conference Conftrencc's 1998 Annual Report, 91 in Jerusalcm, in 1957." The Claims Conference has such a huge role in documentation, and institutions and organil3tions rt.'(cil'cd funding has, through thc decades, colllinued to fund making sure material is preser.cd and rl"rorded in order to promote a \\~dc rangt' of welfare, research progrJms, such as the bibliographi~1 for !llturc generarions, makl'S the donation to l'es(:l[ch, and educational projects in i$l'Jcl. The serit:S, Sourta and literature oftht utaItrOplJe the Archil'es mOSt appropriate." li st of beneficiaries consists of a network of and Piniaui HaKtbif/ot (Encyclopedias of At the start of the 21" century, 3nd u the seniordty care ((nters and homes fur the elderly, Jcwish Communities). "In the context of world becomes mort' technologically oriented, as well as unil'crsitics, museums, and other programs for rcsearch, documenution, and Miller, Kagan, and Taylor sec the importance lC2ming cemers. The beneficiaries listed in the education of the Sh<nh, Yad Vashem is the of mOI'ing with the times. "If the themes of r(pon include the And Senior Citizen Home, single largest recipient of the Cbims eduC'ation, documentation, and research arc to for the conSiruclion of 160 housing unilS for Conference," Kagan 5a}'S. be ukcn seriously, the tools and me~n5 must Jewish \'ictims of Nazi persecution; the Since Yad Vashem's esublishmem, the be ~\'ai1ab1c to deal with the technology of Association for the Senior Dar Care Ccmer in Claims Conferrnce has been a str.l.tegic pmncr. today," says T~}1or. Miller adds, "With tod3),'S Si'ed, for the cOSt of the estlblishmem of the A committed supporter in the realization of modem tcchnology, it is now possible to bener Senior Day Ccmer, and the Association for me me "Yad \'ashem 2001" mastcrphn, the Caims preserve the documcntlDon, making it available Welfare of the Aged in Beer She\';!., for the Conference's generous conrribution to\l':ll'd the to scholan and interested pcoons all OI"er the esublishment of a se r\'ice noor and new Archil"cs an d Libl"3.ry building marks a world." reconstruction of 40 infirm beds. A\'raham pinnacle in this partnership. AkiI'3 Lcllinsky, The importance of the support of the Pressler is the Claims Conf"mnce Rl.-presenCltr.'e former Treasurer and current Honorary Claims Conference to Yad Vashem's new in Israel and the Special Consulunt for TreasurtT of the Claims Conference, hu been Archives building is summed up in the words Institutional Allocations. acril'e in their enterprises in [srael, including in of Saul Kagan: "This contriburion will live lbe cstlblishmem of a Martyrs' and He~' their assistance to Yad Vashem. beyond the lifetime of the su rvivors. [t will Remembrance Authority, Yad Vashem, on the In January 1999, Gi deon Tay lor was set\'C not only as a remembrance, but as an Mount of Remembrancc in Jerusalem, was one appointed Executive Vice Prl~sident of the important educational instrument for future of the Claims Conference's first major Claims Conference.