Yad Vashem chairman: Holocaust memory is under sustained attack

Each name restored is an act of moral justice, a small but essential victory over the Nazi attempt not only to annihilate a people but to erase their identities from human memory.

The global response was immediate and deeply moving. Across social media, people shared stories of discovering long-lost relatives and reconnecting with fragments of their family histories that were once thought to be gone forever.

However, amid this outpouring of remembrance came something darker and entirely predictable.

Holocaust deniers, conspiracy theorists, and antisemites seized upon this achievement to twist it into yet another platform for hatred.

These are not isolated incidents; they are warnings. Holocaust remembrance is under sustained attack, and the threats are only growing more sophisticated.

We stand at a pivotal crossroads of a new generation. Very soon, there will no longer be survivors able to sit before students and recount, in their own voices, the horrors they endured.

For decades, survivors have been the anchor of remembrance. Their passing will leave a void that deniers and distortionists will eagerly attempt to fill, exploiting the echo chambers of social media and the vulnerabilities of imperfect technologies like artificial intelligence.

We must therefore adapt with urgency and clarity.

Yad Vashem is investing heavily in innovative ways to preserve memory, honor the victims, and carry forward the legacy of survivors.

Our archival collections, already the world’s largest repository of Holocaust-era documents, artifacts, and artworks, continue to grow at a rapid pace.

From these materials, we have created a theater presenting monodramas based on authentic testimonies, along with immersive audiovisual experiences that bring pre-war Jewish culture vividly to life.

Yad Vashem’s classrooms are being transformed into interactive learning environments. And we are applying advanced AI and machine learning to analyze millions of documents once impossible to study, unlocking histories still waiting to be discovered.

But innovation alone is not enough. We must remain uncompromising in our commitment to truth, especially as the historical distance from the Shoah increases. The greatest danger we face is not only denial but distortion: the reframing of historical events, the crafting of self-serving narratives, and the sanitizing of the roles of perpetrators and collaborators.

Distortion appears in rewritten textbooks, politicized museum exhibitions, and carefully engineered silences that avoid uncomfortable truths. It includes manipulative comparisons that falsely equate the fate of Jews under Nazism with unrelated episodes in history or with contemporary conflicts.

Yet there is reason for cautious optimism. In many countries, awareness of the need for serious, rigorous Holocaust education is growing.

Yad Vashem is now planning its first Learning Center outside Israel: in Germany, with significant support from the German government. We hope this will be the first of several such centers worldwide.

We will also soon mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day, an observance that did not exist until just two decades ago.

Education systems must strengthen Holocaust curricula, not dilute them. University leaders must demonstrate moral clarity and confront the bullies, agitators, and ideologues who distort history for political ends. And each of us, as individuals, must reject indifference. When faced with the choice of turning away or speaking up, we must always choose to speak up.

Preserving the memory of the Holocaust is neither theoretical nor optional. It is a responsibility to the victims, to the survivors, and to the generations that will inherit this world after us. If we safeguard the truth, they will inherit memory; if we fail, they will inherit only myths and lies.

The Holocaust teaches us many things, among them that when truth is abandoned, humanity is imperiled. Our task is to ensure that truth prevails.■