Note to Correspondents

Exhibitions on the Holocaust to Open at United Nations Headquarters, 25 January

Two exhibitions on the Holocaust will open to the public in the Main Gallery of the Visitors Lobby on Tuesday, 25 January, as part of a week-long series of Holocaust remembrance activities at the United Nations.  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 “Women and the Holocaust:  Courage and Compassion”.

The exhibition “The Memories Live On” presents drawings of Auschwitz made by an unknown prisoner of the concentration and death camp and focuses on the legacy of the survivors to young people.  This exhibit is sponsored by the International Auschwitz Committee in Germany, the State Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland, the International Youth Meeting Centre Oświęcim/Auschwitz in Poland, the German Resistance Memorial Centre in Germany, the Permanent Mission of Germany to the United Nations and the Permanent Mission of the United States to the United Nations.

“Hélène Berr, A Stolen Life”, curated by the Mémorial de la Shoah in France, will also be on display.  Through excerpts of the journal kept by Ms. Berr, a young Jewish woman, this exhibition documents the persecution of Jews in occupied France during the Second World War.  Ms. Berr died in Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp in 1945.

“Jewish women performed truly heroic deeds during the Holocaust.  They faced unthinkable peril and upheaval — traditions upended, spouses sent to the death camps, they themselves torn from their roles as caregivers and pushed into the workforce, there to be humiliated and abused,” said United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki‑moon.  “In the face of danger and atrocity, they bravely joined the resistance, smuggled food into the ghettos and made wrenching sacrifices to keep their children alive.  Their courage and compassion continue to inspire us to this day.”

Holocaust remembrance activities at the United Nations are led by the Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme of the Department of Public Information.  The programme, 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, contact Jan Arnesen, tel.:  +1 212 963 8531, e-mail:  arnesen@un.org; or Liza Wichmann, tel.:  +1 212 963 0089, e-mail:  wichmann@un.org.

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