On Tuesday, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center Yad Vashem will sign a Joint Declaration of Intent with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport of the German Federal State of Brandenburg. The declaration envisions fostering joint Holocaust education, research and commemoration.
Yad Vashem’s Director of Governmental and External Affairs Yossi Gevir will sign the declaration together with Dr. Thomas Drescher, Secretary for the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport of the State of Brandenburg. Brandenburg Governor Dietmar Woidke will also be present at the signing.
The declaration provides the basis for ongoing educational activities between Yad Vashem and Brandenburg, including educator-training seminars at Yad Vashem.
Yad Vashem has similar agreements with 13 other German states, including North Rhine-Westphalia, Berlin, Bavaria and Saxony. This agreement also facilitates a dialogue between German and Israeli teachers about educational practices in Israel, and Yad Vashem training seminars.
“Education is one of the main vehicles for infusing remembrance with meaning and inspiration,” stated Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev. “A major challenge today is to ensure that young people will know about the Holocaust, will find it significant, and will be able to process it appropriately. By formalizing our ties with Brandenburg and other German states, we hope to rise to these challenges.”
At the end of May, Yad Vashem will sign additional educational agreements with two other German states – Saarland and Rheinland-Pfalz – thus establishing educational agreements with almost all of the sixteen states across Germany.