Yad Vashem has partnered with Facebook to remember victims of the Holocaust via the “IRemember Wall,” an online commemorative project connecting members of the public with adults and children murdered by Nazi Germany and its collaborators.
The project, marking the annual International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27, randomly links participants with one of the names found in Yad Vashem’s database of four-and-a-half of the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust. After being matched, the names appear together on Yad Vashem’s IRemember Wall, now available in six languages.
For a second consecutive year, social media giant Facebook says it will use its platform to extend the outreach of the project and encourage global awareness of the Holocaust. In 2019, the partnership enabled Yad Vashem to reach some 700,000 Facebook users in 149 countries.
“I had the great privilege of visiting Yad Vashem in August and it was a moment I will never forget,” said Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg. “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 the project and help tell the story of the millions of women, men and children murdered by the Nazis and those who were complicit in their murder. They deserve to be remembered so this never happens again.”
After matching with a Holocaust victim’s name on the IRemember Wall, users are able to add additional names and personal stories of victims from the Yad Vashem database to the wall. Users can share information about the individual with their wider networks on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
Seeking to further widen the impact of the project, the IRemember Wall is now available in English, Hebrew, French, Spanish, German and Russian.
“This project will create a meaningful opportunity for people all over the world to remember the victims of the Holocaust in their own language,” said Iris Rosenberg, director of Yad Vashem’s communications division.
“By partnering together with Facebook International, we are able to reach a wider international audience, which is crucial in keeping the memory of the Jewish victims alive and the meanings of the Holocaust relevant to the challenges of today’s reality,” she said.
In 2005, marking the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the UN General Assembly voted to designate January 27 as an annual international day of commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. The date marks the Red Army’s liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945.