Overview of Holocaust Remembrance Exhibitions at New York Headquarters
The Holocaust Programme helps to facilitate the organization of temporary exhibitions on Holocaust-related topics every year during the week of 27 January, which marks the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.
In January 2008, the Programme unveiled the permanent exhibit on “Holocaust and the United Nationsat United Nations Headquarters in New York. The exhibit, developed with the assistance of Holocaust scholars, presents an overview of the Holocaust in the context of World War II and the founding of the United Nations, and is seen by the 400,000 visitors who visit United Nations Headquarters annually.
Former Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro opens the permanent exhibition on the Holocaust unveiled on the visitor's guided tour route in january 2008, produced by the Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme
Read about the annual temporary exhibits
- 2012:
“The Face of the Ghetto"
“A Monument of Good Deeds" and “The Holocaust - Keeping the Memory Alive”
"With Me Are Six Million Accusers: The Eichmann Trial in Jerusalem"
- 2011:
“The Memories Live On”
“Hélène Berr, A Stolen Life" - 2010:
“Generations"
“Architecture of Murder: The Auschwitz-Birkenau Blueprints” - 2009:
“Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race” - 2008:
“Besa: A Code of Honor, Muslim Albanians who rescued Jews during the Holocaust”
“Carl Lutz and the Legendary Glass House in Budapest” - 2007:
"The Holocaust against the Sinti and Roma and Present Day Racism in Europe"
“Art of the Surviors" - 2006:
“No Child’s Play -Remembrance and Beyond”
2012
- With Me Are Six Million Accusers: The Eichmann Trial in Jerusalem
The United Nations, in partnership with the State of Israel, marked the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann, the mastermind behind the systematic mass deportation and murder of European Jews during the Holocaust. An exhibition titled “With Me Are 6 Million Accusers: The Eichmann Trial in Jerusalem”, opened with a formal ceremony at 6 p.m. on Thursday, 19 April in the Main Gallery of the Visitors Lobby.
The exhibition was produced by the Museums Division of Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem. It includes photographs, newspaper clippings, works of art and original film footage of the trial of Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi officer who played a crucial role in the practical execution of a master plan to systematically concentrate and deport millions of European Jews to their deaths during the Holocaust. International media coverage of the 1961 court hearing in Jerusalem, which included testimony by Holocaust survivors, captured public attention around the globe and was considered a turning point in Holocaust history.
The exhibit has been made available courtesy of the Canadian Society for Yad Vashem and will be on view at the United Nations through 28 May 2012.
Yossi Peled, Minister and Member of Israel’s Knesset, and Holocaust survivor, speaks at the opening of the exhibit at UN Headquarters. Pictured right is Maher Nasser, Acting Head of DPI.
Speakers at the exhibit opening:
Israeli Minister Yossi Peled, Holocaust survivor and retired General
H.E. Mr. Ron Prosor, Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations
Micky Goldman, Holocaust survivor and member of the Israeli Police Bureau 06
Professor Melvin J. Bukiet, Sarah Lawrence College, representative of the American Society for Yad Vashem
Tamar Hausner-Raveh, lawyer and daughter of Gideon Hausner, the trial’s Chief Prosecutor
- The Face of the Ghetto
More than 100 people turned out at the UN Headquarters in late January to view the openings of three exhibits meant to recognize the millions of people whom perished during the Holocaust. Part of the Organization’s annual week of activities that culminate with a memorial ceremony each 27 January, the three exhibits was displayed in the Visitors Lobby until 29 February 2012.
The extraordinary work of Jewish photographers in the Polish ghetto of Lodz can be seen by the public for the first time with “The Face of the Ghetto: Pictures by Jewish Photographers from the Lodz Ghetto, 1940-1944”. The exhibition was curated by the Topography of Terror Foundation in Berlin, in cooperation with the National Archives in Lodz.
Even experts in the field hardly knew about this collection of images, which lays out the persecution of the Jews in the Lizmannstadt Ghetto. While researching in the National Archives in Lodz, historian Dr. Ingo Loose and curator Dr. Thomas Lutz came across 27 photo albums. Inside were about 12,000 contact prints in small format, sorted thematically and taken by Jewish photographers at the request of the ghetto's Jewish Council.
Speakers at the exhibit opening:
- Roman Kent, a survivor of the Lodz ghetto and President of the International Auschwitz Committee
- Andreas Nachama, Executive Director of the Topography of Terror Foundation
- Ingo Loose, Academic Advisory, Institute of Contemporary History Munich-Berlin
- Peter Wittig, the Permanent Representative of the German Mission to the United Nations
- Monument of Good Deeds and The Holocaust - Keeping the Memory Alive
On Thursday, 26 January, two exhibits in keeping with this year’s theme of “Children and the Holocaust” opened in the UN Visitors Lobby. “Monument of Good Deeds: Dreams and Hopes of Children during the Holocaust”, brought to life the stories of 13 children who had experienced the Holocaust by displaying their portraits, artwork, and toys.
Curated by Yad Vashem, The Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority, this exhibit helps viewers see how these children preserved despite the war in which they lived their daily lives.
The hopes and dreams of young people who suffered during this terrible period was also expressed through the second exhibition, “The Holocaust – Keeping the Memory Alive”. This exhibit showcased the top 16 entries of the Design Student Poster Contest 2012. The 16 top posters were created by design students from the Czech Republic, Israel and France. The contest drew submissions from more than 300 young artists. It was supported by the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research and held in partnership with Yad Vashem, le Mémorial de la Shoah, the European Shoah Legacy Institute and the United Nations Holocaust Programme.
Speakers at the exhibit opening:
- Eli Zborowski, chairman and founder of the American Society for Yad Vashem and a holocaust survivor
- Yehudit Inbar, Yad Vashem curator of the “A Monument of Good Deeds” exhibit
- Kimberly Man, Manager of the Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme
2011
- The Memories Live On
The exhibition displays drawings of the Auschwitz Nazi Concentration Camp found in a sketchbook that belonged to an unknown prisoner in the camp. The drawings, found on the grounds of the memorial site in Birkenau in 1947 by a Polish Auschwitz survivor, depict the fate of the Jews from arrival at the camp to death in the gas chambers.
This exhibition also places emphasis on the need to keep these memories alive by sharing them with younger generations, and presents written memories of survivors along with the thoughts and feelings expressed by young people upon learning the facts of this history. The exhibition was sponsored by the International Auschwitz Committee in Germany, the State Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland, the International Youth Meeting Centre Oswiecim/Auschwitz in Poland, the Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand in Germany and the United States Mission to the United Nations.
- Hélène Berr, A Stolen Life
This exhibition, sponsored by Mémorial de la Shoah, documents the persecution of Jews in occupied France during World War II through the excerpts of a journal kept by Hélène Berr, a Jewish woman who died in Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp in 1945.
2010
- Generations: Survival and the Legacy of Hope
This exhibition explores the impact of the Holocaust on four families across three generations. The Oppenheimer, Wallfisch, Helfglott and Halter families discuss the effects of the Holocaust on their lives and on today’s world. Their legacy is deeply personal and painful, but has a compelling universal message for humanity that one can survive and thrive with the promise of future generations to follow, carrying the traditions and beliefs and wisdom. Through their stories, this exhibition stresses the importance of keeping the legacy of Holocaust survivors alive for the sake of future generations, particularly those who have experienced similar persecution. The exhibition is a joint project of the United Kingdom Holocaust Centre, the San Diego Jewish Cultural Centre, and Conscience Display, and was co-sponsored by the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education.
Speakers at the exhibit opening:
- Robert Katz, Chair, USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education
- Stephen Smith, Executive Director, USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education
- Architecture of Murder: The Auschwitz-Birkenau Blueprints
Remarks at the Exhibition Opening by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
The exhibition, sponsored by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, displays the blueprints prepared by the Nazis for the construction of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, and demonstrates that Auschwitz-Birkenau was part of the Nazis’ “Final Solution”, the plan to annihilate Europe’s Jews. The Nazis produced hundreds of technical sketches of various building sites, including detailed sketches of the gas chambers and crematoriums. More than a million people were murdered during the camp’s operation period from June 1940 to January 1945, most of whom were Jews.
Speakers at the exhibit opening:
- Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary-General
- Yuli-Yoel Edelstein, Minister for Information and Diaspora of Israel
- Rick Barton, US Representative to the Economic and Social Council
- Gabriela Shalev, Permanent Representative of Israel to the UN
- Eli Zborowski, Founder and Chairman, American and International Societies for Yad Vashem
- Yehudit Inbar, Curator of exhibit and Director Museums Division, Yad Vashem, Israel
2009
- Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race
Displaying objects, photographs, documents, and historic film footage, this exhibition describes the Nazi regime’s campaign to "cleanse" German society of individuals viewed as biological threats to the nation's "health”, aiming to change the genetic makeup of the population through measures known as “racial hygiene” or “eugenics”. Jews, Roma, the disabled and other minorities were among the groups considered as “biological threats”, and were subjected to forced sterilization and murder, which culminated in the Holocaust. The exhibition was sponsored by the United States Holocaust Memorial.
Speakers at the exhibit opening:
- Susan Bachrach, Exhibit Curator, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Press Release
Online Exhibition
2008
- Besa: A Code of Honor, Muslim Albanians who rescued Jews during the Holocaust
Press Release
This is a photo exhibition featuring the accounts of Muslim Albanians who rescued Jews during the Holocaust. Their courageous assistance to the Jews was grounded in Besa, a code of honour, which still serves as the highest ethical code in the country. The exhibition was sponsored by Yad Vashem and the Permanent Mission of Albania to the UN.
Online Exhibition
- Carl Lutz and the Legendary Glass House in Budapest
This exhibition recounts the courageous actions of the Swiss diplomat, Carl Lutz, who saved tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews from deportation to the Nazi death camps by placing them under Swiss protection and issuing them certificates for emigration. The exhibition was sponsored by the Carl Lutz Foundation in Budapest and the Permanent Missions of Hungary and Switzerland to the UN.
Speakers at the exhibits’ opening:
- Adrian Neritani, Permanent Representative of Albania to the United Nations
- Yehudit Shendar, Deputy Director and Senior Curator of the Museums Division of Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority
- Rabbi Arthur Schneier, a Holocaust survivor
- Norman Gershman, Photographer of the Besa exhibit
- Peter Vamos, speaking on behalf of the Carl Lutz Foundation
Press Release
Online Exhibition
2007
- The Holocaust against the Sinti and Roma and Present Day Racism in Europe
The exhibition documents the plight of the Roma and Sinti minorities in Central and Eastern Europe during the Holocaust. It features personal testimonies and family photographs. The exhibition was sponsored by the Documentation and Cultural Centre of German Sinti and Roma in Berlin, and the Permanent Mission of Germany to the United Nations.
Press Release
- Art of the Surviors
This exhibition features paintings and sculptures by four Holocaust survivors – Jospeh Bau, David Friedman, Henny de Brito and Hanka Kornfeld-Marder - who shared their experiences during the Holocaust through their art work.
Speakers at the exhibits’ opening:
- Shashi Tharoor, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information
- Romani Rose, Chairman of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma
- Thomas Matussek, Permanent Representative of Germany to the UN
- Rabbi Israel Singer, Chairman of the World Jewish Congress
- Johan Weisz, a Holocaust survivor (Netherlands)
- Clila Bau, daughter of Holocaust survivor Joseph Bau.
2006
- No Child’s Play -Remembrance and Beyond
This special photo exhibition, sponsored by Yad Vashem – the Holocaust the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Authority (Jerusalem), opens a window into the personal stories and lives of children in the Holocaust by presenting toys, games, artwork, diaries and poems written by children. Approximately one and half million Jewish children were murdered in the Holocaust.
Speakers at the exhibit opening:
- Melvin Bukiet, the son of a Holocaust survivor
- Dan Gillerman, Permanent Representative of Israel to the UN
- Yehudit Inbar, Curator, Yad Vashem - the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Authority
Online Exhibition