Yad Vashem UK Foundation

22/09/2026

Jews at prayer during High Holidays in the Warsaw Ghetto, Poland.
Less than a year after the German invasion of Poland, Jewish religious life in Warsaw had been severely restricted. In January 1940, all the synagogues and batei midrash in the city were closed down and public prayer services were banned.
On 12 October 1940, Yom Kippur, the Germans announced the establishment of a ghetto in Warsaw, and ordered the Jews to move there by the end of the month.
Reuven Ben Shem (Feldschuh) wrote: "The prayer room is almost full. The cantor prays boldly and melodiously, and you wouldn't know by looking at him and the worshippers that the world is on the verge of collapse. They are wearing prayer shawls and phylacteries. If you close your eyes for a moment and don't look at these people, at their pinched faces… and just listen to the chanting of their prayers, you would surely think that you happened upon a house of God in a time of peace and harmony."
Despite the restrictions and the growing danger, Jews continued to pray and study Torah. Clandestine gatherings persisted in the ghetto, even during the Great Deportation of 1942 and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943.
Even under persecution, Jewish religious life endured. See less

21/09/2026

𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐁𝐚𝐫 𝐨𝐫 𝐁𝐚𝐭 𝐌𝐢𝐭𝐳𝐯𝐚𝐡?

Our Bar and Bat Mitzvah Twinning Programme ensures that on their special day, young people can be twinned with a named child Holocaust victim. Research their background story and connect with their individual stories.
Complete the online Twinning Form and researchers at Yad Vashem will use the information to find a suitable twin.
Miley celebrated her Bat Mitzvah and was twinned with Maya Bakshi.
"The experience made my Bat Mitzvah especially meaningful and special and I will never forget her. Maya Bakshi will have a special place in my heart forever"

.org.uk

17/09/2026

is your child approaching their Bar or Bat Mitzvah?
Our Bar and Bat Mitzvah Twinning Programme ensures that on their special day, young people celebrating this milestone, can be twinned with a named child Holocaust victim. Research their background story and connect with their individual stories.
Complete the online Twinning Form and researchers at Yad Vashem will use the information to find a suitable twin.

Miley celebrated her Bat Mitzvah and was twinned with Maya Bakshi.
"The experience made my Bat Mitzvah especially meaningful and special and I will never forget her. Maya Bakshi will have a special place in my heart forever"

.org.uk

16/09/2026

Yad Vashem mourns the passing of Yehuda Widawski, the oldest Holocaust survivor in Israel and former torchbearer.
Yehuda Widawski was born in 1919 in Turek, Poland, the second of four children in a traditional Zionist family. In 1933, the family moved to Lodz, and Yehuda became an active member of the Hashmonaim youth organization. By 1936, Yehuda was managing a textile business, employing 38 Jewish seamstresses who sewed shirts and underwear for the army; their products were marketed throughout Poland.
In September 1939, Lodz was occupied by the Germans. Yehuda's family managed to buy an apartment in the district to be transformed into the Lodz ghetto. The apartment was shared by 15 family members.
In April 1940, Jews were prohibited from leaving the ghetto. One of the first soup kitchens in the ghetto was established at their home; thanks to the property they had the foresight to take with them, the Widawskis were able to help their friends and acquaintances.
In August 1944, the ghetto was liquidated and the Widawskis were deported to Auschwitz. Yehuda's parents, Abraham and Leah, and his eldest brother, Gabriel, were murdered immediately. Eight days later, Yehuda and his younger brother, Jehoszua, were transferred to the Friedland work camp, where they made airplane wings.
On 8 May 1945, the Germans abandoned the camp, locking in the inmates. The following day, the camp was liberated by the Red Army. Hearing that their sister had died during the liquidation of Stutthof, Yehuda and his brother realized that, together with their uncle, they were the only members of their family to survive.
In 1950, Yehuda immigrated to Israel, where he founded and ran various commercial enterprises.
In 1978, Yehuda traveled to Lodz and, together with a friend, set about restoring the Jewish cemetery. So far, 7,000 graves have been renovated.
Yehuda Widawski lit one of the six torches at the State Opening Ceremony of Holocaust Remembrance Day at Yad Vashem in 2012.
Yehuda has a son and a daughter, grandchildren, and many great-grandchildren.
Watch his 2012 interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TyUBRS6KAM&t=6s See less

Yad Vashem: World Holocaust Center, Jerusalem


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"Love life, and don’t be afraid of death. Believe in God and a better future". … See more

יהודה אהרן וידבסקי, בנם של דאבריש-לאה ואברהם, נולד ב-1919 בעיירה טו...

15/09/2026

"Love life, and don’t be afraid of death. Believe in God and a better future".
This inscription was written in Ester Goldstein’s album on 15 September 1942 by her 16-year-old classmate Bella Lassore. Ester Goldstein lived in Berlin with her parents, sister and brother. For a number of years, Ester had been keeping an album in which family members and teachers had inscribed messages to her. The note from Bella was one of the last to appear in the journal.
On 26 October 1942 Ester was deported to Riga, and on 12 January 1943 Bella was deported to Auschwitz. Both girls were murdered.
The album, along with other family documents was given to Yad Vashem by Ester’s sister, Margot Herschenbaum (née Goldstein), the sole surviving member of the family. See less

13/09/2026

Yad Vashem UK Foundation wishes Arek Hersh MBE a very Happy 98th Birthday! What an amazing achievement! Arek is a Polish born UK based Holocaust survivor, educator and author, who lost 81 members of his immediate family during the Holocaust. Over five years he survived ghettos and labour camps, including Otoczno, the Lodz ghetto and Auschwitz-Birkenau. In early 1945, he survived a brutal death march to Buchenwald and was eventually liberated at Theresienstadt in May 1945 by the Soviet Army. Following liberation he was brought to the Lake District in August 1945 as part of "The Boys," 300 child survivors famously known as the Windermere Children. In 2021 he was one of the seven Holocaust survivors whose portrait was commissioned by King Charles for the Royal Collection.
Arek is well loved and best known for his lifelong dedication to Holocaust education in the UK.

10/09/2026

Happy 91st birthday to Joseph Szlezinger!
Joe was a "hidden child" during the Holocaust in N**i occupied Belgium. In his video oral testimony with the Shoah Foundation he recounts his early childhood memories of Brussels under N**i occupation, the devastating impact of his father Samuel's arrest and deportation to Auschwitz in 1942 and his subsequent period in hiding. He was hidden at the Soeurs de Sainte-Chretienne convent school in Chimay, as a result of his mother Gita's courage and determination to save him.
He had to change his identity as a young Jewish boy, and pretend to be Catholic, keeping his religion secret under constant threat of discovery. He remembers Allied troops arriving in Chimay, ending his period in hiding and allowing him to openly re-enter society.
Joe has dedicated much of his later life to educational outreach, speaking to schools, synagogues, local councils and community groups, ensuring his personal story is passed down to future generations.
He has recently been sculpted by the renowned sculptor Frances Segelman as part of her series of sculpting Holocaust survivors, organised by Yad Vashem UK Foundation.

09/09/2026

Yad Vashem UK Foundation would like to wish a very Happy 96th Birthday to Holocaust survivor Susan Pollack, OBE. After surviving the trauma and horrors of the Holocaust, Susan has dedicated decades of her life to sharing her testimony with schools, public institutions and universities across the UK to educate the future generation about the Holocaust and the dangers of antisemitism. In 2016, she was awarded an MBE (and later an OBE) for her services to Holocaust education.

06/09/2026

Remembering Holocaust survivor Freda Wineman z'l on her birthday.
Born September 6th 1923, in Metz, Lorraine, in North Eastern France where she lived for 8 years with her mother, father, and three brothers, David, Marcel and Armand, before the family moved to Sarreguemines, near the border with Germany. Freda's family were Orthodox Jewish. The declaration of war with Germany on September 1st 1939 meant the family were no longer safe where they lived and they were forced to move 200km south. In 1942 when the Vichy government in the southern part of France introduced anti Jewish laws, the country was now totally under the control of the N**is.
The family were arrested on the 17th May 1944 and Freda was taken to the Gestapo offices where she was brutally interrogated. Even after being badly beaten she did not give up the location of any of her family members.
Despite Freda's huge efforts, her entire family were eventually found and put on a train at Drancy, an internment and transit camp, and put on cattle trucks. After three horrendous days in horrific, inhumane conditions, the family arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Both of her parents were murdered at Auschwitz, her mother died because she looked after a baby from a young Dutch woman as if it was hers so that the Dutch mother could be saved.
In August 1944 Freda was selected to work in the Kanada Kommando, sorting the possessions of those victims arriving at Auschwitz who were either killed or used for slave labour. She experienced traumatic sights there before she survived horrific conditions of slave labour and the subsequent horrors of Bergen Belsen. On the 3rd February 1945, she and 750 other women were then taken to another camp named Raguhn where she worked as a welder in an aeroplane factory. She ended up in Therersienstadt on the 20th April 1945, emaciated and dying. Her life was saved by a doctor who provided her with medicine. Miraculously she survived and was liberated by the Russian army on the 9th May 1945. Being French she was repatriated to Lyons where she was immediately taken to a hospital.
She was now orphaned, but after reconnecting with her 2 brothers, David and Armund who also survived the war, and visiting some cousins who lived in England after the war, she eventually met her husband David and moved permanently to England.

I had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing Freda when I was researching my Masters dissertation on the historical value of oral survivor testimonies. Freda was determined to tell her story, however painful it was for her to relive so many harrowing memories.

Freda dedicated much of her later life to educating schoolchildren and the future generation about the Holocaust, and was awarded a BEM for her services to Holocaust education.

05/09/2026

Is your child approaching their Bar or Bat Mitzvah?
Our Bar and Bat Mitzvah Twinning Programme ensures that on their special day, young people celebrating this milestone, can be twinned with a named child Holocaust victim. They can research their background story, and understand the importance of Holocaust remembrance.

Over the past 10 years we have twinned over 1000 children.

Complete the online Twinning Form and researchers at Yad Vashem will use the information to find a suitable twin.

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Miley celebrated her Bat Mitzvah and was twinned with Maya Bakshi.
"I am proud I was able to speak about Maya and her family at my Bat Mitzvah, sharing their story with my friends and family and helping to keep their memory alive.
This experience made my Bat Mitzvah especially meaningful and special and I will never forget her.
Maya Bakshi will have a special place in my heart forever."