MUSEUMS
YAD VASHEM UNVEILS ‘THE BOOK OF NAMES’ AT THE UNITED NATIONS
T he Book of Names is a book filled with the names of 4.8 million murder victims. The blank pages at the end, though, are especially haunting. In recognition of this year’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Yad Vashem unveiled an installation at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. This massive exhibition, called The Book of Names, includes the alphabetically arranged names of 4.8 million Holocaust victims whose identities are known to Yad Vashem. The Book of Names is 26.45 feet (8 meters) in length, 6.56 feet (2 meters) high, and 3.3 feet (one meter) wide. It concludes with empty pages in commemoration of 1.2 million Jewish victims who remain unidentified. “We search archives all over the world and have incredibly ingenious ways to register names of victims. We know that we will never be able to recover all the names, but we make an effort to do that,” Dani Dayan, Yad Vashem chairman, told JNS. “When the Nazis tried to deprive the Jews of any sense and resemblance of being human beings, and put numbers on their arms instead of names before murdering them, we thought it’s our duty to give each one of them a name, a face and a history”. Whenever possible, The Book of Names also includes the birth dates, home towns, and circumstances and places of death of the victims. The Israel Yad Vashem Museum Complex and grounds are open to visitors. All visits to the Holocaust History Museum (individuals and groups) must be reserved in advance via the Online Reservation System. The massive exhibit includes the names of all identified Jewish victims of the Holocaust
46 • www.itn.co.il
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