Internet Department Director Dana Porath gives a guided explanation of the online site dedicated to the community of Nieswiez
Left to right: CEO of the Company for the Location and Restitution of Holocaust Victims' Assets Dr. Israel Peleg, Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev, Company Chairman Micha Harish, Chairman of the Committee, Adv. Mordechai Bas
21 July 2015
Exactly 73 years after the first armed uprising in the ghettos during WWII broke out in Nieśwież, Poland (today Belarus), Yad Vashem held a special event marking the uploading of a fascinating account of the Nieśwież Jewish community to its website. The site describes the diverse, dynamic and flourishing community before the Holocaust, and relates the story of the uprising there on 21 July 1942. The story of the Nieśwież community joins that of other Jewish communities across Europe featured in the Yad Vashem online mini-site "Here Their Stories Will Be Told - The Valley of the Communities at Yad Vashem."
At the event, Dana Porath, Director of Yad Vashem's Internet Department, presented the story of the Nieśwież community and the ghetto uprising to the Chairman of the Company for the Location and Restitution of Holocaust Victims' Assets Micha Harish, the Company's CEO Dr. Israel Peleg, and Adv. Mordechai Bas, Chairman of the Committee for Aid to Holocaust Survivors and Commemoration of the Company's Board of Directors, which helps support Yad Vashem's Online Communities Project.
Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev pointed out the importance of the online project "to understand our history and strengthen Jewish continuity: this is both a kesher (link) and gesher (bridge) to the next generations." He added:
"Although it was distinctive in its implementation of a fierce uprising against its oppressors, Nieśwież represents a microcosm of the passion for culture and education, mutual assistance and creativity that characterizes the Jewish people, then and now."
Chairman of the Restitution Company Harish emphasized the importance of commemorating the destruction of precisely the hundreds of small communities that had little or no survivors, and thanked Yad Vashem for its support over the years. Adv. Peleg called the subsite "remarkable, moving and professional - built exceptionally well and with great insight."
