Irena Steinfeldt

Rescue in Bulgaria and Macedonia through the Perspective of the Files of the Righteous Among the Nations

Since the inception of the Righteous Among the Nations program fifty years ago, Yad Vashem bestowed the title on close to 25,000 men and women from 48 nationalities. The Department of the Righteous’ archive contains thousands of files with hundreds of thousands of pages of documentation – it is a wealth of testimonies, photos, official and personal documents, newspaper clippings and other material with information about rescue efforts during the Holocaust. It is therefore only natural that... Continue reading

Paying the Ultimate Price

When Yad Vashem was established to commemorate the six million Jews murdered in the Shoah, the Knesset added yet another task to the Holocaust Remembrance Authority's mission: to honor the Righteous Among the Nations - those non-Jews who had taken great risks to save Jews during the Holocaust. The Righteous program is an unprecedented attempt by the victims of an unparalleled crime to search within the nations of perpetrators, collaborators and bystanders for persons who bucked the general... Continue reading

The Rescue of Jews in Albania Through the Perspective of the Yad Vashem Files of the Righteous Among the Nations

Since the inception of the Righteous Among the Nations program some 45 years ago, Yad Vashem recognized over 22,000 men and women from 44 countries as Righteous Among the Nations. The Department of the Righteous’ archive contains close to 15,000 files with hundreds of thousands of pages of documentation – it is a wealth of testimonies, photos, official and personal documents, newspaper clippings and other material with information about rescue efforts during the Holocaust. It is therefore... Continue reading

Between families: Jews and their rescuers during the Holocaust

One of the purposes of Yad Vashem, as defined by the law that established the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, is to commemorate  the non‐Jews who risked their  lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. In the context of this endeavor – which soon will celebrate its fiftieth anniversary – the Righteous Among the Nations Department gathered a great deal of diverse documentation for the use of the Commission for the Designation of the Righteous . The testimonies,... Continue reading

Abdelwahab: the full picture

An opinion piece that ran in the New York Times accuses Yad Vashem of having different standards for recognizing rescuers of Jews as Righteous Among the Nations, because a Tunisian man, Khaled Abdelwahab was not recognized as a Righteous.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  When Yad Vashem was established to commemorate the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, it was tasked with another mission: to honor the Righteous Among the Nations - those non-Jews who had taken great risks... Continue reading