"The Holocaust and the United Nations"
Exhibit Opening on United Nations Guided Tours Route
On 30 January 2008, the Department of Public Information unveiled a exhibit on the Holocaust and the United Nations on the third floor of the Conference building at United Nations Headquarters in New York.
Deputy Secretary-General Ms. Asha-Rose Migiro officially opened the exhibit. Her statement was joined by Ambassador Daniel Gillerman, Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations; Dr. Francis Deng, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide; and Mr. Kiyo Akasaka, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information.
The exhibit, produced by the Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme, presents an overview of the tragedy in the context of World War II and the founding of the United Nations. It will be seen by the over 400,000 visitors who visit the United Nations Headquarters annually.
The United Nations received scholarly advice and consultation on the exhibit's text from three Holocaust historians from leading institutions, including: Dr. Peter Black, Senior Historian, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Dr. Wolf Kaiser, Deputy-Director, House of the Wannsee Conference Educational and Memorial Site, and Dr. Robert Rozett, Director of the Yad Vashem Libraries. Dr. Black participated in the official opening of the exhibit.
In preparation for the exhibit opening, Ms. Elizabeth Edelstein, Director of Education from the Museum of Jewish Heritage, A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in New York City, briefed the United Nations Tour Guides on the history of the Holocaust to further their understanding of this watershed event.
The exhibit has received generous support and the donation of materials from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Heroes’ and Martyr’s Remembrance Authority; the Bundesarchive in Berlin, Germany; the House of the Wannsee Conference Memorial and Educational Site; the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial; and the Corbis Corporation.