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Yad Vashem,
the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes'
Remembrance
Authority, was established in 1953 by an act of the Israeli
Parliament (Knesset). Since its inception, Yad Vashem has been
entrusted with documenting the history of the Jewish people during
the Holocaust period, preserving the memory and story of each of the
six million victims, and imparting the legacy of the Holocaust for
generations to come through its archives, library, school, museums
and recognition of the Righteous Among the Nations. A Holocaust
Memorial was first
proposed in September 1942 at a board meeting of the Jewish
National Fund by Mordecai Shenhavi, a member of Kibbutz Mishmar
ha-Emek. Shenhavi even proposed the name "Yad Vashem"
(lit."a monument and a name"), taken from Isaiah
56:5. The Yad
Vashem Law
was eventually brought to the Knesset by the Minister of Education Prof.
Ben-Zion Dinur, one of the foremost historians of his day,
and the first
Chairman of
Yad Vashem. The Law was ratified on August 19, 1953.
The Knesset
Law stipulated that Yad Vashem be established in Jerusalem, and
serve as a memorial to the six
million Jews
murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators, to the families that
were destroyed, to the Jewish communities and their communal,
cultural and
religious institutions that were annihilated, to the courage
and valor of the
Jews
- ghetto inmates, soldiers and underground activists, to the
struggle of
the masses of the House of Israel for their human dignity and
Jewish culture,
and to the
Righteous Among the Nations.
More
about the early history of Yad Vashem..
Copyright ©2004 Yad Vashem
The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority
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