WJC welcomes German initiative to make available more than 13 million Holocaust-era documents

24 May 2019

NEW YORK – World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder has welcomed the initiative of the International Tracing Service in Germany to upload more than 13 million documents from Nazi concentration camps, calling the move a “revolutionary” step in Holocaust education for future generations.

 

“The International Tracing Service has undertaken an enormously ambitious and ultimately revolutionary step in preserving the memory of the Holocaust and honoring the six million Jews who perished at the hands of the Nazis,” Lauder said.

 

“Nearly seventy-five years after the liberation of Auschwitz, a shocking number of people continue to deny or question the Nazi attempt to annihilate European Jewry, and obfuscation of Holocaust memory abounds. In great part, this is due to the appalling rise of the far-right across Europe and the glorification of Nazism, but it is also due to a severe lack of education among young people,” Lauder added.

 

“The World Jewish Congress teamed up with UNESCO last year to create a comprehensive website dedicated to Holocaust education, already translated into numerous languages including Arabic and Farsi, but it is clear that these kinds of initiatives require as much material and assistance as possible. The events of the Holocaust are irrefutable. These archives are an invaluable resource to all of us embarking on the mission to educate young people and ensure that the horrors of the past never occur again,” Lauder added.

 

The International Tracing Service archive can be found here

 

Visit aboutholocaust.org for more information on the WJC-UNESCO joint Holocaust education website