NEW YORK, Jan. 07, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Permanent Mission of France to the United Nations in cooperation with the United Nations Department of Public Information’s Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Program will present, “Holocaust by Bullets: Yahad-In Unum - 10 Years of Investigations,” as part of its 2016 Calendar of Holocaust Remembrance Events. The exhibit will be displayed in the United Nations Lobby from January 7 – February 10, 2016.
Based on ten years of research and investigation by the French organization Yahad-In Unum and its founder, Father Patrick Desbois, the exhibit chronicles the lesser-known side of the Holocaust through eyewitness testimonies, photographs and maps. It presents Yahad’s identification of the dehumanizing steps that took place almost systematically for every mass killing throughout Eastern Europe leading up to the executions. Along with the installation, monitors are available to view extended video of eyewitness testimonies. The exhibit is in both English and in Spanish so as to reach a wide spectrum of the population.
Known as the “Holocaust by Bullets,” the systematic killing of all Jews and Roma started before the creation of concentration camps throughout the ex-Soviet Union from 1942 to 1944 and continued until WWII‘s end. The form of genocide detailed by Yahad-In Unum’s exhibit is unlike any other study of genocidal activity ever conducted and presented.
“In this exhibit, the visitor becomes a ‘witness’ to the heinous crimes of the Nazi death squads,” says Father Desbois. “Some of the images are, of course, disturbing but we tried to present them in a thoughtful and discreet fashion. However, it is important for everyone to experience and learn from these crimes because the world is still consumed with the disease of genocide.”
In Cambodia, Rwanda, Darfur, the Balkans and Syria, such mass killings are modeled after what Father Desbois calls the archetype of these horrors – the village-by-village, on site massacres perpetrated by the Nazis and their collaborators in Eastern Europe.
Accompanying the exhibit is a 130-page Teacher's Guide that provides educators with material to enable an in-depth study of the “Holocaust by Bullets” with sample questions and exercises to generate discussions about the issues surrounding genocide and the individual’s responsibility to guard against such atrocities.
Background
Between 1942 and 1944, more than 2 million Jews were massacred when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. In a period of two and half years, the Nazis killed nearly every Jew in the region. The mass murder was part of the Holocaust, Hitler’s genocide of the Jewish people. Until recently, this chapter of Holocaust history, referred to as the “Holocaust by Bullets,” was relatively unknown. To date, Yahad-In Unum has identified over 1700 mass killing sites and interviewed over 4,000 local, non-Jewish eyewitnesses in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Moldova, Lithuania, Romania, Republic of Macedonia and Poland.
About Yahad-In Unum
Yahad-In Unum combines the Hebrew word – Yahad meaning “together,” with the Latin phrase In Unum, meaning “in one.” Founded in 2004 by Father Patrick Desbois, the organization is dedicated to systematically identifying and documenting the sites of Jewish mass executions by Nazi mobile-killing units in Eastern Europe during World War II. Yahad-In-Unum is not a politically affiliated organization, nor does it advocate any political, economic or military action be taken by any group or nation. Rather, its mission is to uncover facts of genocidal practices wherever they are found and provide a voice of protest on behalf of all victims and potential victims of genocide. For more information, please visit http://www.yahadinunum.org/
The exhibition will be shown at:
United Nations Visitors Lobby
760 United Nations Plaza, Manhattan
Entrance: 1st Avenue at 46th Street
New York City 10017
Admission is free.
Government-issued photo identification required for visitors 16 years and older.
Security screening is carried out before entering the United Nations Headquarters. Groups should allow 45 minutes for this.
January 7 to Feb 10, 2016
Monday – Friday, 9:30 am – 4:30 pm
For Yahad-In Unum Jason Grimley 323/309-8714 jasongrimley@spellcom.com
