Israel Seeks to Identify All Jewish Holocaust Victims

Six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis and their accomplices during World War Two. In many cases, entire towns’ Jewish populations were wiped out, with no survivors to bear witness – part of the Nazis’ plan for the total annihilation of European Jewry. Since 1954, Israel’s Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem, has been working to re-cover the names of all the victims, and to date has managed to identify some 4.7 million. “Every name is very important to us,” says Dr Alexander Avram, director of Yad Vashem’s Hall of Names and the Central Database of Holocaust Victims’ Names. “Every new name we can add to our database is a victory against the Nazis, against the intent of the Nazis to wipe out the Jewish people. Every new name is a small victory against oblivion.”

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