Yad Vashem Holocaust Exhibitions

A recent Holocaust Memorial Day Trust poll of over 2000 people in the UK revealed shocking levels of ignorance regarding the scale of the Holocaust. One aspect of our ministry therefore is very valuable and useful in our aim to educate the public about the genocide of the Jewish people.

One in five of those questioned thought that less than 2000 Jews were murdered and 45% had no idea how many were killed!   In order to address this level of ignorance, ICEJ UK Charity has partnered with Yad Vashem in Jerusalem to sponsor travelling exhibitions about various aspects of the Holocaust. These are available for supporters to borrow for use in their churches, local libraries, museums, schools and colleges.

Yad Vashem’s goal of educating people about the Holocaust has been effective.  Over one million people each year visit the memorial in Jerusalem, created in 1953. Travelling exhibitions however enable the message to reach a much wider audience and these have been displayed very successfully in many places around the world, including the United Nations and the European Parliament.

There are numerous exhibitions that have been created by Yad Vashem has created numerous exhibitions and the ICEJ UK Charity currently has two (plus access to several more digital ones – please get in touch for more details).

One is about children in the Holocaust and is called ‘No Child’s Play’. It does not focus on history, statistics of victims (approximately one and a half million children were murdered in the Holocaust) or descriptions of violence. Instead it opens a window onto the world of the Jewish child and tells how toys and games helped them to cope at a time when their family lives were disintegrating.

It is the story of survival; the struggle of children to hold on to life. It describes their attempts to maintain their childhood and youth by creating for themselves a different reality from that which surrounded them. And in many cases it was the children who gave their parents the encouragement and hope to continue their own desperate daily fight for survival.  For those children who survived the war, those toys they managed to keep with them were often the most significant possessions they were left with. Even today, these adults find it extremely difficult to be parted from them.

Our other exhibition tells the story of different Muslim men and women who upheld the Albanian tradition called ‘Besa’ which required that citizens put the needs of visitors first. Many Jews in Albania were sheltered and provided for by people of the Muslim faith who even risked their lives to hide them during the Nazi occupation of their country.

Both exhibitions consist of 16 panels on roll-up banners and have been created by Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, the world’s foremost research centre on the Holocaust so we can be sure that the factual information is well researched and reliable.

If you would like to borrow either of these exhibitions please contact us 01744 894374 or emailing exhibitions@icej.uk . We do not charge for borrowing the exhibitions but if you would like to make a donation towards the cost of transport we would be grateful.