21 January 2021
“I should like someone to remember that there once lived a person named David Berger,” David wrote in his last letter, which he sent from Vilna in 1941. Today, 80 years after the 19-year-old was murdered during the Holocaust, Yad Vashem is fulfilling the last wishes of David and many other Holocaust victims through its IRemember Wall project. This unique online commemorative initiative allows the public to identify with the names and stories of some of the six million Jewish men, women and children whose lives were brutally cut short by the Nazi Germans and their collaborators during the Holocaust.
To mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2021, Yad Vashem will once again launch the Wall, which is now available in six languages — English, Hebrew, French, Spanish, German and Russian. Each participant who joins the event will be randomly linked to one of the individuals recorded in Yad Vashem's Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names, which today includes more than 4,800,000 names. Their names will then appear together on the IRemember Wall. Participants can also choose additional Holocaust victims from the Names Database to commemorate on the Wall. Those who join are encouraged to share the stories on their social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. The IRemember Wall will go live on 21 January 2021.
Yad Vashem will be partnering again this year with Facebook International to promote the project on social media. As last year, Facebook will use its platform and resources in order to encourage global awareness and outreach of this meaningful initiative.
“By partnering together with Facebook, we are able to reach a wider international audience, which is crucial to keeping the memory of the Jewish victims alive and the meanings of the Holocaust relevant in today’s complex reality. Last year, over 85,000 victims were commemorated by people from some 175 countries around the world in their own languages – making each participant an 'ambassador of memory,' responsible for promulgating the voices of those who were murdered.”.
Iris Rosenberg, Director of Yad Vashem's Communications Division
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg stated:
“I am so grateful for all that Yad Vashem does to honor the victims of the Holocaust – including this incredible IRemember Wall project. Facebook is honored to be a part of this project, helping to tell the story of the millions of women, men, and children murdered by the Nazis. They deserve to be remembered so this never happens again.”
Many members of the public who participated in last year’s IRemember Wall were grateful for the opportunity to bring personal meaning to International Holocaust Remembrance Day. “Thank you for giving me a place to acknowledge the individual and not the just statistics,” commented Catherine F. Liana L. wrote, “This is a great initiative and I am grateful for being able to learn about three victims and reflect about their lives… they will never be forgotten.”
