Witness: Passing the Torch of Holocaust Memory to New Generations

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Witness: Passing the Torch of Holocaust Memory to New Generations
Witness book cover.png
Author Eli Rubenstein
LanguageEnglish
Spanish
Hebrew
Publisher Second Story Press
Publication date
2015
Publication placeCanada
Media type Book (Hardback)
Pages130
ISBN 9781927583661

Witness: Passing the Torch of Holocaust Memory to New Generations is a large format volume, published by Canadian Second Story Press, inspired by a 2014 United Nations exhibit of reflections and images of Holocaust survivors and students who have traveled on the March of the Living since 1988. The exhibit and the book are intended to educate a new generation of students about the atrocities of the Second World War. In collaboration with March of the Living, an organization that spearheads visits to the Polish grounds where Nazi atrocities occurred, Toronto religious leader and Holocaust educator Eli Rubenstein compiled this book which includes an introduction from Pope Francis.

Cover of Polish language edition of Witness, with Survivor Edward Mosberg and granddaughter lighting a memorial torch on the March of the Living in Auschwitz-Birkenau Witness - Passing the Torch of Holocuast Memory, Polish Edition.png
Cover of Polish language edition of Witness, with Survivor Edward Mosberg and granddaughter lighting a memorial torch on the  March of the Living in Auschwitz-Birkenau

Witness features a unique interactive feature where the survivors, World War II liberators, and Righteous Among the Nations included in the book, have an invisible link embedded in their image. When their image is accessed with a smart phone or other device, the reader is taken to an excerpt of their video testimony on USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education (created by Steven Spielberg) or March of the Living Digital Archive Project websites. [1]

Witness: Spanish Edition Witness-spanish.jpg
Witness: Spanish Edition

Translations in several other languages have been completed and/or published with the launch of the Polish language edition taking place in November 2018 at the Polin Museum, the Spanish edition (Testimonios; traspasar la antorcha de la memoria del holocausto a las nuevas generaciones) launched in January 2019, and the Hebrew edition was scheduled for release in early to mid 2019. [2] The exhibit was on display at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum until July 2016. [3] [4]

Witness: Hebrew Edition Witness-hebrew.jpg
Witness: Hebrew Edition

In 2020, a special edition of the book was published in conjunction with “Liberation 75” an international Holocaust education initiative commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the end of WWII and the liberation of Europe from Nazi tyranny. The book included a section of liberation stories dealing with the accounts of mainly Canadian Holocaust survivors from this pivotal period.  The new edition also included an afterword by Steven Spielberg, founder of the USC Shoah Foundation. Other new material, included content from Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis related to the March of the Living and additional stories concerning the actions of the Righteous Among the Nations.

President of Poland Andrzej Duda (centre) and Aharon Tamir-March of the Living Deputy Chairman (left) with copy of Witness President of Poland Andrzej Duda with Aharon Tamir-March of the Living.jpg
President of Poland Andrzej Duda (centre) and Aharon Tamir-March of the Living Deputy Chairman (left) with copy of Witness

Support

The March of the Living Digital Archive, which hosts many of the videos linked in the book was made possible in part, through grants from the Citizenship & Immigration Canada - Multiculturalism Section, and the Claims Conference. The Digital Archives Project aims to gather Holocaust testimony from Canadian survivors who, since 1988, have traveled to Poland on the March of the Living to share their Holocaust stories with their young students in the locations they transpired. [5]

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References

  1. "Watch Testimony Clips in New Book from the March of the Living". USC Shoah Foundation News. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  2. Lungen, Paul (13 November 2015). "Book Passes the Torch of Holocaust Memory". The Canadian Jewish News. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  3. "March of The Living Exhibit is open to the visitors of Auschwitz Museum". March of the Living International. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  4. 7 במאי 2019 , retrieved 2024-02-14
  5. Lungen, Paul (6 December 2013). "March of the Living to Create Digital Archive". The Canadian Jewish News. Retrieved 23 December 2015.