(January 8, 2008 - Jerusalem) United States President George W. Bush will visit Yad Vashem on Friday, January 11, 2008. Yad Vashem will be closed to the public on Friday, January 11, 2008, and will close at 18:00 on Thursday, January 10, 2008. Coverage of the President’s visit is by POOL only; details below.

During his visit to Yad Vashem, the President, guided by Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev, will visit the Holocaust History Museum, the Museum of Holocaust Art, hold a wreath-laying ceremony in the Hall of Remembrance, and visit the Children’s Memorial. He will be accompanied by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, President Shimon Peres, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council Joseph (Tommy) Lapid.

At the conclusion of his visit, Shalev will present President Bush with a special gift, a replica of an illustrated Bible by Jewish artist Carol Deutsch. The original is on display in the Museum of Holocaust Art. Recently Yad Vashem decided to produce a special, numbered series of the portfolio limited to 500 copies, the first of which will be presented to the President. Deutsch created the works while in hiding in Belgium. He was informed upon, and died in 1944 in Buchenwald, leaving behind 99 vividly colored paintings in an illustrated wooden box, which he bequeathed to his daughter Ingrid.

POOL INFORMATION: (Pool must arrive at Prime Minister's Office at 06:00 for Security Checks)
Hall of Names in the Holocaust History Museum:
TV: JCS Live Feed
Foreign Press Stills: EPA
Israel Press Stills: Yediot Achronot

Hall of Remembrance: Wreath-laying Ceremony
TV: JCS Live Feed
Foreign Press TV: ARD + ZDF
Foreign Press Stills: EPA + Getty + Reuters + Polaris + UPI + NY Times
Foreign Press Print: AFP + AP + Christian Science Monitor
Israel Stills: Yediot, Maariv, Haaretz, Jerusalem Post
Israel Print: Yediot, Maariv, Haaretz, YNET, Jerusalem Post
Israel Radio: Kol Yisrael, Galatz

Signing of the Guest Book; Exit from the Children’s Memorial, conclusion of visit:
TV: JCS Live Feed
Foreign Press Stills: EPA
Foreign Press Print: AP
Israel Stills: Yediot Achronot
Israel Print: Yediot Achronot [Channel 1 + 2 + 10]
Israel Radio: Kol Yisrael + Galatz

Yad Vashem, the Holocaust remembrance and education center in Jerusalem, was established by the Knesset in 1953. Located on the Mount of Remembrance, Yad Vashem is dedicated to Holocaust remembrance, documentation, research and education. Through the International School for Holocaust Studies, the Museum Complex, the International Institute for Holocaust Research, the Library and Archives, the Hall of Names, and its monuments and memorials, Yad Vashem seeks to meaningfully impart the legacy of the Shoah for generations to come. Drawing on the memories of the past, Yad Vashem aims to strengthen commitment to Jewish continuity and protect basic human values.

The Holocaust History Museum: <http://www1.yadvashem.org/new_museum/overview.html>
The Hall of Names: <http://www1.yadvashem.org/new_museum/Galleries/gal10Hall.html>
The Museum of Holocaust Art: <http://www1.yadvashem.org/new_museum/art.html>
The Hall of Remembrance: <http://www1.yadvashem.org/visiting/sites/hall.html>
The Children’s Memorial: <http://www1.yadvashem.org/visiting/sites/children.html>

The Story of Carol Deutsch and the Bible
Carol Deutsch’s daughter Ingrid survived the war with her grandmother, Regina Braunstein, hiding with a Catholic family in North-Eastern Belgium. After Liberation, Regina and her granddaughter learned that Fela and Carol Deutsch had been deported in September 1943 from Mechelen to Auschwitz, where Fela was murdered. Carol had been transferred to Sachsenhausen and from there to Buchenwald, where he died in December 1944.

When Ingrid and Regina returned home to Antwerp in early 1945, they discovered that the Nazis had confiscated their furniture and valuables. However, miraculously one item was left untouched: a large, meticulously crafted, wooden box adorned with a Star of David and a seven-branched menorah. Inside was a collection of biblical illustrations labored over by the artist Carol Deutsch between 1941 and 1942. Under the stressful conditions of curfew and persecution, the artist had produced an oeuvre that proudly affirmed his Jewish identity-a patrimony he devoted to his young daughter. The 99 strikingly painted gouaches depict the biblical scenes with a unique iconography and palette, reflecting the artist’s boldness and originality. The illustrations combine Art Nouveau ornamentation with stylistic influences of the Bezalel School, echoes of Deutsch’s 1936 visit to the Land of Israel.

The biblical illustrations Deutsch bequeathed to his daughter exhibit exceptional vitality and constitute a stalwart expression of defiance to everything for which the Nazis stood. This father’s intimate and intellectual bequest to his daughter, donated to and displayed at Yad Vashem’s Museum of Holocaust Art, is thus instilled in the collective legacy. Here, visitors can appreciate the illustrations’ artistic quality first hand and grasp the power of the Jewish spirit and tradition that inspired them. - by Yehudit Shendar and Eliad Moreh-Rosenberg. Shendar is Senior Curator and Deputy Director of Yad Vashem’s Museums Division, and Moreh-Rosenberg is a curator in the Museums Division.