Note to Correspondents

Two Exhibitions Open at United Nations Headquarters Next Week in Lead-up

To International Day for Commemoration of Holocaust Victims, 27 January

Two exhibitions will open to the public in the Visitors Lobby at United Nations Headquarters on Tuesday, 22 January, as part of a week-long series of remembrance activities leading up to the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, 27 January, and in line with the theme of this year’s observance, “Rescue during the Holocaust:  The Courage to Care”.

Opening with a joint formal ceremony and reception in the Main Gallery of the Visitors Lobby at 6 p.m. will be “The World Knew — Jan Karski’s Mission for Humanity” and “Whoever Saves a Single Life… Rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust”.  The first recounts the life of Jan Karski, focusing specifically on the mission he undertook as a young Polish officer and former diplomat at the Foreign Ministry to save Jews during the Second World War.  The second comprises photos, artefacts, documents and videos recounting the stories of more than 40 rescuers — Jewish and non-Jewish — who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.

“The World Knew — Jan Karski’s Mission for Humanity” is curated by the Polish History Museum in Warsaw, in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and co-sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Poland to the United Nations.  “Whoever Saves a Single Life… Rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust” is presented by The Jewish Foundation of the Righteous.

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, 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 e-mail:  mann@un.org, or visit www.un.org/holocaustremembrance.

United Nations exhibition galleries are free of charge and open to the public from Monday to Friday in January and February.  For more information, please contact Renata Morteo at tel.:  +1 212 963 5455, e-mail morteo@un.org; Liza Wichmann at tel.:  +1 212 963 0089, e-mail:  wichmann@un.org; or visit http://visit.un.org.

* *** *

For information media • not an official record