Youth to learn about Jews who helped fight Nazis
New program launched by Ghetto Fighters' House Museum in coordination with Genesis Philanthropy Group aims to expose Israeli teenagers to heroic stories of Soviet Jews during World War II.
Developed in coordination with the Genesis Philanthropy Group, the program seeks to expose youth to Jewish heroism in the former Soviet Union.
As part of the program, the education department at the Ghetto Fighters' House is offering a day of activities for ninth and 10th graders, including a guided tour of the museum's exhibitions and workshops with texts, testimonies and personal items connected to the men and women who joined the partisans and served as fighters in the Red Army.
At the end of the day, the students engage in a discussion on the humane and ethical aspects of the fighters' heroism.
"We must tell and highlight the Soviet Jews' story, because they played a major role in the victory over Nazi Germany," says Major-General (res.) Dr. Yitzhak Arad, a member of the program's steering committee. "They fought in the forests and in the resistance movements. I fought with the partisans too. It was a struggle for the Jewish people's survival. I have three children, 11 grandchildren and five great grandchildren. This is my personal victory over the Nazis."
"The Israeli public has been unfamiliar with many of the heroic stories of Jewish fighters, who fought the Nazis in the ghettos, in the forests and with the Red Army. Until now, their stories were only known to Russian-speaking Jews," says Sana Britavsky, executive director of the Genesis Philanthropy Group.
"This project provides an opportunity for thousands of teenagers to catch up on the missing pieces of history of that dark yet most heroic period in the history of our people."
