Yad Vashem launches Farsi YouTube chanel

Yad Vashem launches Farsi YouTube chanel

January 23, 2011

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Yad Vashem has launched a YouTube channel in Farsi and an expanded version of its Farsi website.

The Farsi YouTube channel launched Sunday contains survivor testimonies, archival footage and mini-lectures by Holocaust historians on topics such as contemporary anti-Semitism, and what makes the Holocaust a unique historical event.

The comprehensive new website includes a chronological and thematic narrative about the Holocaust with related video, photos, documents and artifacts; frequently asked questions about the Holocaust; a lexicon of terms; online exhibitions including a multimedia presentation of the Auschwitz Album in Farsi; and stories of Righteous Among the Nations.

Addressing viewers on the YouTube channel, Israeli President Shimon Peres encourages visitors to the site.

“History is rich in events, but there is one event that is exceptional, which is a watershed. That is the Holocaust, when a cultured nation in an organized manner killed 6 million people because they were Jews, including a million-and-a-half babies and children," Peres says. "What we suggest is that each of you will see the material, which is based on records and on photos, to understand what happened, and also to be able to tell your own children to beware, not to let history fall again to such a depth, to such shame,” he said.

“One of our primary goals is to make credible information about the Holocaust accessible to as wide an audience as possible,” said Avner Shalev, the chairman of Yad Vashem. “Today, when there is so much disinformation and distortion easily available online, we provide an alternative to anyone who is interested in the truth.”

Yad Vashem's website and YouTube Channel are available in English, Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, Spanish and Farsi.