I am an eighth-grade student in California doing a National History Day project (www.nationalhistoryday.org) on Dr. Jan Zabinski, a Righteous Gentile. Dr. Zabinski was the Warsaw Zoo Director and hid many Jews in the empty animal cages and helped get them forged papers so they could “blend into the Aryan community.”

The Yad Vashem website has a short article on him. However, I am trying to document what he did and am hoping some of your members either remember him or heard of him. Or, perhaps, your organization may have some documentation on him. I am also Jewish, so this project is especially meaningful for me.

Any help you can give me or suggestions, would be a great help.

Shalom
Michael Robinson

Cinsport {at} aol(.)com

Published: 1/30/2006

MFA: ”WE WISH THAT SUCH INCOMPARABLE EVIL EVENTS WILL NEVER OCCUR AGAIN”

ANKARA - Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) released a statement to mark the 61st anniversary of the liberation of the former Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, and said, ”we wish that the whole humanity has learned its lessons from this horrifying period, and that such incomparable evil events will never occur again. MORE.

Ukraine Parliament Speaker at Holocaust Commemoration

Monday, January 30 2006

DNEPROPETROVSK, Ukraine – The Golden Rose Synagogue of Dnepropetrovsk hosted a visit by Vladimir Litvin, the Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament on International Holocaust Day. Community leaders showed him plans for the Museum of Holocaust History, which will be soon established in the Synagogue Complex. Together with leaders of various Jewish organizations operating in the city, the guests learned about the Jewish community’s work in combating anti-Semitism and xenophobia, as well as commemorating victims and honoring heroes of World War Two. MORE.

Driven more by remembrance than compliance, the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum is in the process of digitizing up to a half-Pbyte of data ranging from decades-old documents to newly shot video.

MORE.

Holocaust research center in honor of Simon Wiesenthal to be built in Vienna

01:42 2006-01-31
Officials at the University of Vienna announced Monday they plan to build a new Holocaust research center in honor of the late Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal.

The Ђ14.5 million (US$17.1 million) center, to be called the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies, is targeted to be completed by 2009 or 2010, project leader Anton Pelinka said during an evening presentation, MORE.

Hollywood and the Holocaust’ Presentation at Dowling College

– This Year’s Theme: ‘A Celebration of Jewish and Jewish-American Contributions to American Culture’ –
As part of its year-long celebration of Jewish and Jewish-American Contributions to American Culture, Dowling College is pleased to announce “Hollywood and the Holocaust” on Wednesday, March 8 from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. The presentation, which will be delivered by Prof. Leonard Quart, will be held in the Hunt Room of Fortunoff Hall, located at Dowling’s historic Rudolph Campus in Oakdale. The event is free and open to the public. MORE.

I escaped Holocaust with new life in UK

Jan 30 2006

As Holocaust Memorial Day was marked yesterday, Rhona Ganguly spoke to a retired Birmingham nurse who managed to escape Hitler’s grasp…

In the early 1990s, Lia Lesser tuned in to a television programme about the Holocaust.

As she listened to the story of Sir Nicholas Winton, who rescued 669 Jewish children from the former Czechoslovakia before the start of the Second World War, Mrs Lesser realised how she had arrived in Britain. MORE.

Keep alive memory of Holocaust

First published: Monday, January 30, 2006

The United Nations, which has not always been friendly to the Jews, marked the first universal observance of victims of the Holocaust the other day, with a commemoration that had the theme “Remembrance and Beyond.” The date was Friday, Jan. 27, the day of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp 61 years ago. MORE.

Sixty-one Years After Liberation of Auschwitz, U.N. Marks Holocaust

By Chanan Tigay

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 29 (JTA) — Sixty-one years to the day after the liberation of Auschwitz, the United Nations marked its first-ever Holocaust remembrance day, commemorating those lost in the genocide that was the impetus for the world body’s birth.

The acknowledgment was long overdue, said those who attended last Friday’s ceremony in a packed General Assembly Hall.

“For us survivors, this commemoration under U.N. auspices is a muted triumph,” said Roman Kent, chairman of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors. “It is imperfect justice, for it took 60 years for the crimes committed during the Holocaust to be properly acknowledged by the United Nations.” MORE.

Agencies Serving Hungarian Holocaust Survivors Receive First Round of Gold Train Lawsuit Settlement Funds
Monday January 30, 8:33 am ET
Federal Judge Praises Attorneys and Resolution of First Case of Its Kind

WASHINGTON, Jan. 30 /PRNewswire/ — Attorneys representing Hungarian Holocaust survivors today announced disbursement of the first funds for Hungarian survivors in need as part of the United States Government’s settlement of the “Gold Train” class action lawsuit. Earlier, on October 11, 2005 the United States issued an apology and, on December 27, paid $25.5 million as restitution for improper conduct by American military personnel in handling personal property of Hungarian Jewish families in the aftermath of World War II. The belongings, including gold, jewelry, artwork and religious treasures, were looted in Hungary by Nazis who shipped the valuables on a train heading West ahead of advancing Soviet troops. The train and its cargo were later obtained by U.S. forces in Austria.

MORE.