Published: 7 February 2020
Last updated: 4 March 2024
YAD VASHEM HAS ISSUED an apology for the “partial picture of historical facts” in the World Holocaust Forum attended by dozens of world leaders in Jerusalem last month.
The message from Israel’s official authority for commemoration and research of the Holocaust appeared in a letter to Haaretz signed by Professor Dan Michman, head of Yad Vashem’s International Institute for Holocaust Research.
He did not specify who was responsible for the “inaccuracies”, but wrote that films shown at the event made “no mention of the division of Poland between Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany in 1939, or the conquest of Western Europe in 1940.”
“In addition, maps that were presented had mistaken borders of Poland and its neighbours and the wrong identification of concentration camps as extermination camps,” he added.
The World Holocaust Forum is organised by the European Jewish Congress, which is presided over by Moshe Kantor, a Russian businessman with close ties to the Kremlin.
It has been held in various locations over the years and this year, to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, it was jointly hosted by President Reuven Rivlin and Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.
Yad Vashem apology for ‘inaccurate’ Holocaust commemoration that overlooked Soviet Russia’s role (Jewish Chronicle)
Photo: Abir Sultan/Pool/AFP)
