A museum commemorating the memory of the 1.5 million Jewish children who perished in the Holocaust is this year celebrating its tenth anniversary and continuing links with French education.

The Yad Layeled, (hand to the children) Memorial museum is based at the Beit Lohamei Haghetaot (Ghetto Fighters House museum) in the Galilee, in the north of Israel and deals with the life of Jewish children’s during the second world war.

“It is a museum about children and aimed at children”, said Sabrina Volkofrimann, a member of the Yad Layeled association in France.

Jewish underground fighters falling into German hands during the suppression of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Credits: Yad Layeled

The association backs and gives financial aid to the Israeli Memorial Museum and helps to publicise the Holocaust story in French schools.
The idea of a children’s museum was conceived by Yitzhak ’Antek’ Zuckerman, co-commander of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and a founder of the Ghetto Fighters’ Museum. After Zuckerman’s death in 1981, the premise was expanded into a living educational memorial for the child.

French Education

Volkofrimann stressed the importance of the children’s museum and the work it does in France.

She said: “Our main goal is to introduce children in a sensitive and age-appropriate way to the intimate world of the child who experienced the Holocaust. For this we must tell the story of the Holocaust in order to keep the memory alive and transmit it to youngsters. This is the originality of Yad Layeled. In France we are in the continuity of the Israeli museum.”

The association has undertaken a number of educational projects including the creation of several teaching aids to contribute to the memory of the murdered children.

Death Train

By Robert Michael Gurdus (Bubus) who died at the age of four. Credits: Yad Layeled

A few months ago Volkofrimann created a briefcase, ‘The child and the Holocaust’ for primary, secondary classes with a history book, cassettes and videos of adult’s testimonies telling what happened during the war.

Every year, Yad Layeled organizes seminars in Israel for pupils in primary, secondary and higher public or private schools, for teachers and community.

There is also a travelling exhibition entitled ‘You will tell it to your children’, which describes the lives of the children through their own diaries and through the testimonies of child survivors.

Dramatic Experiences

“The museum gives an intimate view of the world of the children in the Holocaust and opens a door to their dramatic experiences, in an age-appropriate way,” Volkofrimann said.

“Youths often say us that in school, the Holocaust is always presented in a dry, historical way, but at Yad Layeled, it became more meaningful, more personal.”

For any information on the association, contact :
Yad Layeled France
7, rue Victor Hugo
92310 Sevres
01 45 07 17 47
e-mail: yadlayeled@wanadoo.fr

web: http://english.gfh.org.il/