On Tuesday Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, will sign a Joint Declaration of Intent with the German Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport of the State (Länder) of Brandenburg, Potsdam.
The signing of this agreement highlights the already existing relationship with the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany (also known as KMK), who signed an agreement with Yad Vashem in 2013, aiming to foster joint Holocaust education, research and commemoration.
Yad Vashem's Director of Governmental and External Affairs Yossi Gevir will sign the declaration together with the Honorable Dr. Thomas Drescher. State Secretary for the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport of the State of Brandenburg. Minister President (Governor) Dr. Dietmar Woidke will also be present at the signing of the agreement.
The Declaration provides the basis for ongoing educational activities between Yad Vashem and Brandenburg, including educator-training seminars at Yad Vashem. Yad Vashem has similar agreements with 13 other Länder, including NRW, Berlin, Bavaria and Saxony.
The agreement also facilitates a dialogue between German and Israeli teachers about educational practices in Israel, participation in Yad Vashem training seminars, and more.
"Education is one of the main vehicles for infusing remembrance with meaning and inspiration," stated Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev. "A major challenge today is to ensure that young people will know about the Holocaust, will find it significant, and will be able to process it appropriately. By formalizing our ties with Brandenburg and other German states, we hope to rise to these challenges."
Yad Vashem is also expected to sign additional educational agreements with two other German states, Saarland and Rheinland-Pfalz, marking the landmark achievement of educational agreements with almost all of the sixteen states across Germany.