Exhibit Revealing Little-Known Model for Genocide Debuts in Eastern Europe October 1 to November 22, 2015

New EHRI partner, the Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum, in Vilnius, Lithuania, debuts the exhibit, "Holocaust by Bullets, Yahad-In Unum - 10 Years of Investigations," from October 1 to November 22, 2015. Based on ten years of investigation by the international nonprofit organization, Yahad-In Unum and its founder, Father Patrick Desbois, the exhibit chronicles the lesser-known side of the Holocaust. This is the first time the "Holocaust by Bullets" exhibit will be on display in a part of the world that suffered the actual atrocities of the period. This is also the first time the exhibit is being displayed in a country where mass graves of the "Holocaust by Bullets" victims were found.  

In addition, Yahad-In Unum will conduct a training workshop for Lithuanian educators to help teach this part of Lithuanian history to new generations and to help the fight against anti-Semitism. The workshop will include the history of the "Holocaust by Bullets" and the methodology Yahad-In Unum applied to build their research. Yahad-In Unum's will also instruct on the usage of its proprietary teaching tools which include an interactive map, teacher's guide, and the exhibit itself.

Known as the "Holocaust by Bullets," the systematic killing of all Jews and the persecution of Roma started before the creation of concentration camps throughout the ex-Soviet Union from 1942 to 1944 and continued until WWII's end. 

The form of genocide detailed by Yahad-In Unum's exhibit is unlike any other study of genocidal activity ever conducted and presented.

"Because some of the images are disturbing, they have been presented in a thoughtful and discreet fashion, enabling the visitor to view them at his or her own discretion," says Father Desbois. "The visitor in effect becomes a 'witness' to the crime, choosing to delve deeper into the findings."

Yahad-In Unum, founded by French Catholic priest Father Patrick Desbois, presents its painstaking 10 years of research in a succinct yet approachable manner that enables the visitor to uncover, step-by-step, the crime committed against Jews and Roma by the Nazi killing units.

In Cambodia, Rwanda, Darfur, the Balkans and Syria, such mass killings are modeled after what Father Desbois calls the archetype of these horrors – those village-by-village, in situ (on site) massacres - perpetrated by the Nazis and their collaborators in Eastern Europe.

"This method of killing Jewish men, women and children and leaving them in mass graves in the middle of the forest was systematically employed by the Nazis in Eastern Europe. Each killer saw his victim, each victim saw his killer," says Marco Gonzalez, Director of Yahad-In Unum in Paris.   "Unfortunately, this is the same method being used today in the mass crimes which continue to take lives of innocent groups of people across the world."

The exhibit gives viewers a chance to learn about this lesser-known side of the Holocaust, through eyewitness testimonies, photographs, and maps. The exhibit presents Yahad's identification of five steps of the crime that took place almost systematically for every mass killing throughout Eastern Europe leading up to the executions—the arrest, the road, the undressing, the shooting, and after the executions, the looting.

About The Exhibit 

A key strategy regarding the presentation of the exhibit in the USA is to reach communities and challenge new generations to face issues of anti-Semitism and violence today. Father Desbois believes that if these issues are tackled, named and discussed, it will help prepare new generations to take responsibility and perhaps decide to take action to combat them. He adds: "With violence and anti-Semitic attacks on the rise, the work of Yahad-In Unum is crucial and more important than ever. We are on the front lines of this critical battle."

Accompanying the exhibit is a 130-page Teacher's Guide that provides educators with material to enable an in-depth study of the "Holocaust by Bullets" with sample questions and activities to engage a discussion about the issues surrounding genocides and the individual's responsibility. Along with the installation, monitors are available to view extended eyewitness testimonies.

Background

Between 1942 and 1944, more than 2 million Jews were massacred when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. In a period of two and half years, the Nazis killed nearly every Jew in the region. The mass murder was part of the Holocaust, Hitler's genocide of the Jewish people. Until recently, this chapter of Holocaust history, referred to as the "Holocaust by Bullets," was relatively unknown. To date, Yahad-In Unum has identified over 1700 mass killing sites and interviewed over 4,000 local, non-Jewish eyewitnesses in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Moldova, Lithuania, Romania, Republic of Macedonia and Poland. 

As distinct from the concentration camps, there are few survivors to tell the world what had happened. It is estimated that in less than five years, these witnesses will be gone.

About Yahad – In Unum 

Yahad – In Unum combines the Hebrew word – Yahad meaning "together," with the Latin phrase In Unum, meaning "in one." Founded in 2004 by Father Patrick Desbois, the organization is dedicated to systematically identifying and documenting the sites of Jewish mass executions by Nazi mobile-killing units in Eastern Europe during World War II. The objective of this work is to substantiate the "Holocaust by Bullets," provide evidence, give proper respect to the victims' burial places and disseminate the universal lessons about genocide and mass killings. Yahad-In Unum is the sole Christian organization dedicated to finding the truth about these killings. For more information, please visit http://www.yahadinunum.org.

About The Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum

The Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum is dedicated to preserving the history and heritage of Lithuanian Jews. The museum was established in 1989 by the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture. Over the course of the following years, its exhibition items, many from earlier Jewish museums in Lithuania, were brought together. It received its current name in 1997, commemorating the 200th anniversary of the death of the Talmudic scholar Vilna Gaon. Its five branches focus on various aspects of history and culture. The museum acquires and systematizes materials, issues publications, conducts research, organizes permanent and temporary exhibitions, and sponsors educational activities.