Identifying Mass Graves in Eastern Poland & Ukraine

Information on Nazi-Era Mass Graves To Be Made Available to the Public

Father Debois Has Devoted Seven Years To Documenting the S.S. Killing Fields in Eastern Europe

By Nathan Guttman
The Jewish Daily Forward
Published May 25, 2011, issue of June 03, 2011.

Washington — For seven years, the Rev. Patrick Debois has devoted his life to locating and marking the mass graves of Jews murdered by the Nazis. Now, the work of the Catholic priest is going online — thanks to a joint initiative between his Paris-based organization and Washington’s United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Yahad — In Unum, founded and directed by Debois, has documented mass graves in some 600 Eastern European villages. Information about those gravesites, as well as videotaped accounts from villagers who witnessed the Nazi roundups and killings, will be available this summer at the U.S. Holocaust museum. Yahad — In Unum has also joined forces with the American Jewish Committee to help ensure that the newly discovered gravesites are protected.
“I have the conviction we cannot build a modern Europe with thousands of mass graves of Jews killed like animals,” Debois said at a May 12 State Department gathering held in his honor. “We cannot build a new world if we keep on being silent.”
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Hannah Rosenthal, a State Department special envoy and head of the Office to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, suggested Jewish communities consider supporting/adopting villages to help maintain mass graves and/or create memorials. There is no formal local effort yet to do this, but we are looking to see if there is interest. If you are interested, please email Ilana Cone Kennedy, Director of Education, at ilanak@wsherc.org.

Read more: http://www.forward.com/articles/138121/#ixzz1RGVCE1is