10 May 2010
Tomorrow, May 11, 2010, a special event with the participation of “Buchenwald Children” and Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council, who survived Buchenwald, will be held to mark the Hebrew publication of “Saving Children: Diary of a Buchenwald Survivor and Rescuer” by the late Jack Werber (published by Yad Vashem).
The event will take place in Hebrew, in the Yad Vashem Auditorium, and is open to the press.
In the summer of 1944, some 600 children aged 6-16 arrived in Buchenwald. The children were sent to various blocks, in particular block 66. On April 11, 1945 the camp was liberated by the US Army. Some 21,000 prisoners, among them 4,000 Jews remained in the camp. Most of the “Buchenwald Children” survived. After the liberation, they built new lives and families. Tomorrow, dozens of them will come to Yad Vashem for a special meeting. The author of the book, the late Jack Werber, was a Jewish prisoner who risked his life to rescue the children. Werber was a prisoner of Buchenwald for five and half years, and was active in the international underground in the camp. Together with other Jewish prisoners and members of the underground, they worked to save the children of the camp.
Program:
10:00: Gathering of the “Buchenwald Children”
11:00: Event in auditorium
Remarks: Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council
Avner Shalev, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate
Martin Werber, son of the late Jack Werber, author the book
Prof. William B. Helmreich, Deputy Chair, Dept. of Sociology, CUNY
Lecture: “Jewish Prisoners in the Buchenwald Camp” – Dr Bella Gutterman, Director of the International Institute for Holocaust Research, Yad Vashem
