Petr Ginz's Diary. Credit: Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem has opened the exhibition Living Memory, offering a unique glimpse into the depth of its collections and the ongoing efforts to uncover the identities and stories behind rare items gathered over decades. For the first time, approximately 400 artifacts, documents, photographs, and works of art are presented in an exhibition that places the collections themselves at the heart of the narrative, with each piece bearing witness to a destroyed world and to the lives of individuals, families, and entire communities.
The exhibition takes visitors on a journey through three layers of Holocaust memory: documentation created in real time during the Shoah, testimony and commemoration in the postwar period, and the development of a visual language that has become an integral part of collective memory. Alongside the authentic artifacts, videos featuring survivor testimonies add living voices to the experience, creating a deeply moving and emotionally charged atmosphere.
Package of Yellow Stars to be distributed to French Jews. Credit: Yad Vashem
In its final section, the exhibition offers a behind-the-scenes look at the new Shapell Family Collections Center, where methods of storage, preservation, cataloging, and research are presented. At a time when the generation of Holocaust survivors is diminishing, Living Memory highlights the irreplaceable value of direct encounters with authentic artifacts and serves as a powerful reminder of our obligation to remember, preserve Holocaust memory, and transmit it across generations. As Elie Wiesel once said, “We must be messengers to the messengers.”
