Note to Correspondents

‘Generations’ Video Exhibition Opens at United Nations Headquarters

on 25 January as Part of Holocaust Remembrance Activities

 

A video exhibition, Generations:  Survival and the Legacy of Hope, will open in the Main Gallery of the Visitors Lobby at 6 p.m. on Monday, 25 January, as part of a week-long series of Holocaust remembrance activities at United Nations Headquarters in New York.  The International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust is 27 January and the theme of this year's observance is "Holocaust Remembrance:  The Legacy of Survival".

The Generations 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 own lives and on today’s world.  The show demonstrates that Holocaust survivors have a clear message to leave for the benefit of future generations.

"How is it possible that someone can witness the worst side of humanity and still not lose hope?  Where did survivors find the strength to start over again, and the courage to raise families in the aftermath of all they experienced?  How are memories transferred across generations, and what responsibility do the children and grandchildren of survivors have as the inheritors of those memories?  These are some of the questions that Generations explores," said Stephen Smith, Executive Director of the USC Shoah Foundation Institute, who joined the institution after serving as founding director of the United Kingdom Holocaust Centre.

Generations is based on a multimedia exhibition called Davka:  The Survival of a People.  It is a joint project of the United Kingdom Holocaust Centre, the San Diego Jewish Cultural Centre and Conscience Display.  Monday’s opening reception is co-sponsored by the USC Shoah Foundation Institute.  Established by Steven Spielberg in 1994 to collect and preserve the testimonies of survivors and other witnesses to the Holocaust, the Institute maintains one of the world’s largest video digital libraries.  For more information, visit the Institute's website, www.college.usc.edu/vhi.

Holocaust remembrance activities at the United Nations are led by the Department of Public Information’s Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme, which, as established by General Assembly resolution 60/7, aims to mobilize civil society for Holocaust remembrance and education in order to help prevent future acts of genocide.

For more information, please contact Kimberly Mann at mann@un.org and visit www.un.org/holocaustremembrance.

For more information on United Nations exhibitions, call Jan Arnesen at +1 212 963 8531, Liza Wichmann at + 212 963 0089; e-mail at arnesen@un.org or wichmann@un.org.

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For information media • not an official record