Yad Vashem is planning an educational center on the Shoah – NRW is the favorite!

Yad Vashem is planning an educational center on the Shoah – NRW is the favorite!

In a groundbreaking development, the Holocaust memorial is planning Yad Vashem in Jerusalem to build a new education center on the Shoah in Germany. The decision on the location should be made soon and preparations are already being worked hard. Those responsible are expecting delegations to take a closer look at possible locations in North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria and Saxony in the first half of December 2023.

Yad Vashem Chairman Dani Dayan emphasizes the importance of the educational center having a nationwide reach. “It’s about involving the entire population in the process and reflecting the multicultural reality of Germany,” said NRW Anti-Semitism Commissioner Sylvia Löhrmann (Greens). There is a lot to be said for North Rhine-Westphalia in order to meet this requirement: there is a close-knit network of memorial sites and Jewish schools that can serve as an ideal environment.

Cooperation with NRW

Just a few days ago, an agreement to continue cooperation between North Rhine-Westphalia and Yad Vashem was signed, which was personally confirmed by Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) and Dayan. The discussion is rounded off by Abraham Lehrer, Vice President of the Central Council of Jews, who emphasizes the federal state's central location and high population.

But what exactly is taught in this educational center? In addition to imparting knowledge about the horrors of the Holocaust, it will also provide a platform for interactive and multimedia content. The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. In the period from 1941 to 1945, the National Socialists murdered around six million Jews, which corresponded to around two thirds of Europe's Jewish population. The cruel means used include massacres in the Baltic Sea region and the infamous gas chambers in the death camps.

An extensive educational offering

The planned education center will not only offer visitors information about the history of the Holocaust. Yad Vashem's website features numerous resources, including photos, video testimonies from survivors, documentaries and artwork. Particularly noteworthy are the diverse videos that not only shed light on historical events, but also impressively depict the realities of life of the Jewish population before and after the Holocaust.

The Holocaust not only cost a generation of lives, but also left profound scars on human history. The memory of this is kept alive in Germany through museums and monuments. Through the new education center, Yad Vashem will make a critical contribution to educating future generations about this dark time and raising awareness of the dangers of anti-Semitism and racism.

This initiative shows once again how important it is to learn from the past and look into the future with an open mind. The discussions and planning are a step in the right direction and we are excited to see where this impressive project will lead.