Chronology of Jewish History - Part 9
1990 - 2021
Chronology of Jewish History - Parts 1-9
Chronology of Jews in Denmark
20th Century
1990’s
1990
The Soviet Union collapses.
1990
East and West Germany are reunited.
1990
Turkish diplomat rescuer Selahattin Ülkümen is awarded the Righteous Among the Nations medal.
1990
Dr. Feng Shan Ho’s memoirs, “Forty Years of My Diplomatic Life” is published. His rescue work is barely mentioned in just 70 characters.
November 14, 1990
Signing of German–Polish Border Treaty, which had been unsettled since 1945.
Feb 27, 1990
Full diplomatic relations are restored between Israel and Poland. It leads to expanded political, military, economic, and cultural cooperation between the two nations.
November 25, 1990
Presidential election is held in Poland; Lech Wałęsa becomes President on December 22.
1991
First parliamentary elections held in Poland since fall of communism. Soviet troops start to leave Poland.
1991
The United Nations’ resolution determining that "Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination" was revoked.
1991
The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, published in 1991, is a book that asserts that Jews dominated the Atlantic slave trade. The book has been labeled an Antisemitic canard by historians including Saul S. Friedman, who writes that Jews had a minimal role in New World slave trade. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., head of the department of Afro-American studies at Harvard University, called the book "the Bible of new anti-Semitism" and added that "the book massively misinterprets the historical record, largely through a process of cunningly selective quotations of often reputable sources".
1991
In December 1991 the American Historical Association issued the following statement: The American Historical Association Council strongly deplores the publicly reported attempts to deny the fact of the Holocaust. No serious historian questions that the Holocaust took place. This followed a strong reaction by many of its members and commentary in the press against a near-unanimous decision that the AHA had made in May 1991 that studying the significance of the Holocaust should be encouraged.
March 5, 1991
The Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany goes into force. The military occupation of Germany by the Four Powers—the last vestige of the World War II Allies—ends.
May 1991
Polish President Lech Walesa apologizes for antisemitism throughout Polish history. He visits Israel.
July 1991
Monument to Carl Lutz is dedicated in the former ghetto of Budapest.
July 1, 1991
Warsaw Pact is dissolved.
October 1991
The Terezín Ghetto Museum is inaugurated in Czechoslovakia, as part of the fiftieth anniversary commemorations of the former ghetto. The museum is funded by the Czech Ministry of Culture.
1992
Several antisemitic incidents take place in Germany.
1992
The Union of Jewish Religious Communities in Poland is a religious association formed by Jews living in Poland. It was originally created in 1949 as the Religious Association of Judaism and renamed in 1992.
1992
Giorgio Perlasca dies in Milan, Italy at age 82.
1992
Hill of Humanity monument and park is dedicated in honor of Sugihara in Yaotsu, Japan.
1992
Samuel and Pearl Oliner publish The Altruistic Personality. This book outlines the psychological and social characteristics of Holocaust rescuers.
1992
Sweden asks the US government to tone down its efforts on behalf of the Raoul Wallenberg case.
1993
The Camp des Milles a former French internment camp, is opened as a World War II memorial. The "Fondation du camp des Milles: mémoire et éducation" (Foundation of the Camp des Milles: Memory and Education). The camp was first used to intern Germans and ex-Austrians living in the Marseille area, and by June 1940, some 3,500 artists and intellectuals were detained there. Between 1941 and 1942 it was used as a transit camp for Jews, mostly men.
February 3, 1993
French President François Mitterrand commissions a monument to be erected on the site of Vélodrome d'Hive. It stands now on a curved base, to represent the cycle track, on the edge of the quai de Grenelle. The monument is inaugurated on July 17, 1994. The memorial plaque states, "The French Republic pays homage to the victims of racist and anti-Semitic persecutions and crimes against humanity committed under the de facto authority called the 'Government of the French State' 1940–1944. Let us never forget." [Wikipedia]
April 1993
George Mandel Mantello dies in Rome at the age of 90.
April 27, 1993
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is formally dedicated by President Bill Clinton and Elie Wiesel. Many European heads of state are present.
1993
In Poland Reformed Communists enter coalition government. They pledge to continue market reforms.
1993
The Vatican recognizes the State of Israel. It exchanges ambassadors with Israel.
1993
The Simon Wiesenthal Center opens its Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, California. A major component of this museum is on the Holocaust.
1993
French President Francois Mitterand publicly denounces the actions of the French Vichy government during World War II.
1993
Steven Spielberg’s film Schindler’s List is released. This popular motion picture tells the story of a German rescuer during the Holocaust. This film increases public awareness of rescue during the Holocaust.
1993
Turkey and the Holocaust: Turkey’s Role in Rescuing Turkish and European Jewry from Nazi Persecution, 1933-1945, by Stanford J. Shaw, is published.
October 14, 1993
The Włodawa Museum, which commissioned the Sobibor monument, establishes a separate Sobibór Museum on the 50th anniversary of the armed uprising of Jewish prisoners there.
November 1993
A bronze bust of Gilberto Bosques, donated by the exiled Germans and Austrians, was unveiled at the Instituto del Derecho de Asilo y las Libertades Públicas, Museo Casa de Leon Trotsky. “A Gilberto Bosques Dank an Mexiko, Los Exilados Alemanes y Austriacos.” [Institute of Asylum Rights and Public Liberties. Leon Trotsky House Museum.]
December 30, 1993
At Jerusalem, signing of an agreement on some basic principles regulating relations between the Holy See and the State of Israel. The Vatican recognizes the State of Israel.
1994
Poland joins NATO’s Partnership for Peace program.
1994
Stephen Spielberg finances and founds the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation. In ten years, the project interviews 52,000 Holocaust survivors. The project raises 120 million dollars.
1994
AMIA bombing against the Jewish community of Buenos Aires.
1994
Street in Bern named after Carl Lutz.
1994
Visas for Life project to honor Chiune Sugihara is launched in Japan.
1994
Former Jewish immigrants return to Mexico City to present Ambassador Bosques, who is 102 years old, with a document of gratitude. It states: “To Gilberto Bosques, whose human greatness will be present in our hearts forever.”
1994
A documentary film entitled “Flucht nach Mexiko: Deutsche im Exil” [Fleeing to Mexico: Germans in Exile] is produced on Gilberto Bosques, documenting his rescue of Jews and other refugees. It is broadcast in Mexico.
February 25, 1994
Second Hebron massacre. Baruch Goldstein, a Jew, kills several Muslim worshippers; this leads to riots that kill both Muslims and Jews.
April 7, 1994
The Vatican organizes its first memorial to Jewish victims of the Holocaust. More than 200 Jewish Holocaust survivors are asked to participate in the commemoration.
July 16, 1994
France for the first time commemorates wartime deportation and murder of 76,000 French Jews.
September 1, 1994
A memorial dedicated to Jews killed in the Second World War was opened in Klooga, on the site of the former concentration camp. This memorial stone is erected by the Jewish Cultural Society and with the support of the Estonian Government.
1995
In Belgium, Holocaust denial is made illegal.
1995
In Poland a former Communist Aleksander Kwasniewski, narrowly defeats Lech Walesa to become president.
1995
Israel signs an Association Agreement with the European Union (EU) which includes free trade and goes into effect in 2000.
1995
International Committee for the Red Cross in Geneva apologizes for its passivity and inaction in helping Jews during World War II.
1995
In conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, the President of Switzerland, Kaspar Villiger, officially apologizes to the Jewish people for its disastrous refugee policy.
1995
The World Jewish Congress, under the leadership of Dr. Israel Singer and Edgar Bronfman, demands that Swiss banks account for Jewish money and assets in World War II accounts.
1995
Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance later renamed. Kazerne Dossin: Memorial, Museum and Documentation Centre on Holocaust and Human Rights is established within the former Mechelen transit camp of World War II, from which, in German-occupied Belgium, arrested Jews and Romani were sent to concentration camps. In 2001, the Flemish Government decided to expand the site by constructing a new museum complex opposite the old barracks. It opened its doors in September 2012. [Wikipedia]
1995
Visas for Life: The Story of Sugihara exhibit and program is launched in the United States. It is shown in the California State Capitol and at the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Museum of Tolerance.
1995
Ambassador Gilberto Bosques dies in his home in Mexico City. He is 103 years old.
1995
A street in Bern, Switzerland, is named after Swiss Consul Carl Lutz.
1995
Witold Pilecki is posthumously awarded the Order of Polonia Restituta, and in 2006 the highest Polish decoration, the Order of the White Eagle. On September 6, 2013 he is promoted, by the Minister of National Defence, to colonel.
1995
In February 1995 a Japanese magazine named Marco Polo, a 250,000-circulation monthly published by Bungei Shunju, ran a Holocaust denial article by physician Masanori Nishioka which stated: The 'Holocaust' is a fabrication. There were no execution gas chambers in Auschwitz or in any other concentration camp. The Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center instigated a boycott of Bungei Shunju advertisers, including Volkswagen, Mitsubishi, and Cartier. Within days, Bungei Shunju shut down Marco Polo and its editor, Kazuyoshi Hanada, quit, as did the president of Bungei Shunju, Kengo Tanaka.
January 1995
The 50th anniversary of the liberation ceremony is held in Auschwitz I in 1995. About a thousand ex-prisoners attended it.
June 1995
Carl Lutz und die Juden von Budapest, by Dr. Theo Tschuy, is published (NZZ Buchverlag, Zurich). This well-researched biography stimulates interest in Swiss diplomat Carl Lutz.
July 16, 1995
French President Jacques Chirac, in a speech, recognizes the responsibility of the French State, and in particular of the French police which organized the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup (Rafle du Vel' d'Hiv) of Jews in July 1942, for aiding the "criminal folly of the occupying country". He stated "These black hours will stain our history forever and are an injury to our past and our traditions. Yes, the criminal madness of the occupier was assisted by the French, by the French state. Fifty-three years ago, on 16 July 1942, 450 French policemen and gendarmes, under the authority of their leaders, obeyed the demands of the Nazis. That day, in the capital and the Paris region, nearly 10,000 Jewish men, women and children were arrested at home, in the early hours of the morning, and assembled at police stations...
October 1995
Aristides de Sousa Mendes presented with the Gran Cross of the Order of Christ, the highest medal awarded to civilians in Portugal.
November 30, 1995
Paul Grüninger acquitted of all charges related to allowing more than 3,600 Jews to enter Switzerland.
1996
Germany designates January 27, the day of the liberation of Auschwitz, the official day for the commemoration of the victims of National Socialism. Countries that also adopt similar memorial days include Denmark (Auschwitz Day), Italy (Memorial Day), and Poland (Memorial Day for the Victims of Nazism).
1996
Visas for Life: The Righteous Diplomats Project premieres exhibit depicting multiple diplomatic rescuers of Jewish refugees during the Holocaust.
1996
The Visas for Life Project edits and publishes Mrs. Sugihara's manuscript, Visas for Life, in English.
May 1996
World Jewish Congress and Swiss bankers establish an investigative body to look into confiscation and misappropriation of Jewish funds during and after World War II.
1997
The European Parliament, of which Jean-Marie Le Pen was a member, removed his parliamentary immunity so that Le Pen could be tried by a German court for comments he made at a December 1996 press conference before the German Republikaner party. Le Pen stated: "If you take a 1,000-page book on World War II, the concentration camps take up only two pages and the gas chambers 10 to 15 lines. This is what one calls a detail." In June 1999, a Munich court found this statement to be "minimizing the Holocaust, which caused the deaths of six million Jews," and convicted and fined Le Pen for his remarks.
1997
Polish parliament votes to adopts a new constitution. General election is won by the Solidarity grouping AWS. Jerzy Buzek forms a coalition government.
1997
Polish Commission for the Prosecution of Nazi Crimes staff member, Ryszard Walczak, declares that 704 Poles were killed for aid Jews during the Nazi occupation.
1997
The Pogrom Monument is dedicated. It is located on Eduard-Wallnöfer-Platz, in the centre of Innsbruck, and commemorates the November Kristallnacht pogroms of 1938
1997
Jan Zwartendijk awarded Righteous Among the Nations status.
1997
Angelo Rotta, the Vatican Nuncio in Budapest, is awarded Righteous Among the Nations status.
1997
Visas for Life: The Righteous Diplomats exhibit opens at the Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles and at the Holocaust Museum Houston.
1997
Book on Ambassador Per Anger, A Quiet Courage: Per Anger, Wallenberg's Co-Liberator of Hungarian Jews, by Elizabeth R. Skoglund, is published.
February 20, 1997
The Polish parliament votes to return nationalized Jewish property from the end of World War II. These include synagogues, schools, and cemeteries.
February 1997
Monument for Raoul Wallenberg is dedicated in London, England.
March 1997
93 million dollars is allocated for the preservation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau site.
April 2, 1997
A new constitution of the Republic of Poland is adopted.
July 19, 1997
In Luxembourg, Article 457–3 of the Criminal Code, Act of 19 July 1997 outlaws Holocaust denial and denial of other genocides. The punishment is imprisonment for between 8 days and 6 months and/or a fine.
September 28, 1997
Dr. Feng Shan Ho dies in San Francisco at the age of 96.
October 8, 1997
In France Maurice Papon goes to trial, after 14 years of delay. The trial was the longest in French history and went on until April 2, 1998. Papon is accused of ordering the arrest and deportation of 1,560 Jews, some children or elderly, between 1942 and 1944. Papon is convicted in 1998 as having been complicit with the Nazis in crimes against humanity. He is given a ten-year sentence but served less than three years. [Wikipedia]
1998
The European Union (EU) begins talks on Polish membership.
1998
The term Righteous Gentile is changed to Righteous Among the Nations in Yad Vashem’s publications.
1998
Visas and Virtue, a short theatrical film on Sugihara, is released and wins an Academy Award.
1998
Alexander Kasser, Swedish Representative for the Red Cross in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45, receives the Righteous Among the Nations award. Kasser passes away shortly thereafter.
1998
Peter Zürcher is designated Righteous Among the Nations.
1998
Book on Aristides de Sousa Mendes, A Good Man in Evil Times: The Story of Aristides de Sousa Mendes--The Man Who Saved the Lives of Countless Refugees in World War II, by José-Alain Fralon, is published.
1998
A major monument honoring Raoul Wallenberg is dedicated in New York City, in front of the United Nations world headquarters.
1998
Swiss banks agree to pay Holocaust survivors who lost money in bank accounts. Six hundred million dollars in reparations will be paid by the Swiss government.
March 1998
“We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah” is issued by the Vatican’s Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews. This document acknowledges the Catholic Church’s role in antisemitic actions against Jews.
April 1998
Visas for Life: The Righteous Diplomats exhibit opens at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem for the 50th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel, with tour of diplomats’ families. Israel issues commemorative stamp in honor of Righteous Diplomats.
June 14, 1998
Wincenty Antonowicz and his wife Jadwiga were posthumously bestowed the titles of Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem. They are the “Polish family from Wilno (now Vilnius, Lithuania) who sheltered the 20-year-old Jewish woman Bronisława Malberg (b. 1917) in their house after the liquidation of the Wilno Ghetto during the Nazi German occupation of Poland in World War II, as well as two other Jewish families including Henia and Adi Kulgan”.
August 1998
Swiss banks agree to pay 1.25 billion dollars to Holocaust victims who had assets in Swiss banks during World War II.
October 1998
Visas for Life: The Righteous Diplomats exhibit is translated into German and opens at Berlin City Hall.
November 1998
Visas for Life: The Righteous Diplomats exhibit opens in Bern, Switzerland. In attendance is the President of Switzerland.
December 18, 1998
The Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation (Polish: Instytut Pamięci Narodowej – Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu, abbreviated IPN) is established. It is a Polish state research institute in charge of education and archives with investigative and lustration powers. The IPN was established by the Polish parliament by the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance which incorporated the earlier Main Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation of 1991. [Wikipedia]
1999
Many German industries such as Deutsche Bank, Siemens or BMW face lawsuits for their role in the forced labor during World War II. In order to dismiss these lawsuits, Germany agrees to raise $5 billion of which Jewish forced laborers still alive could apply to receive a lump sum payment of between $2,500 and $7,500. In 2012, Germany agreed to pay a new reparation of €772 million as a result of negotiations with Israel. [Wikipedia]
1999
Museum of Jewish Heritage opens in New York City.
1999
Holocaust Remembrance Day has been commemorated as a national remembrance day in Sweden every year since 1999.
1999
Swiss government issues postage stamp honoring Carl Lutz.
1999
Jean-Edouard Friedrich, the International Red Cross representative in Berlin during World War II, is made Righteous Among the Nations by the State of Israel.
January 1, 1999
Sixteen new voivodeships are created in Polish local government reforms.
March 12, 1999
Poland joins the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance NATO.
May 31, 1999
Visas for Life: The Righteous Diplomats exhibit opens in Budapest, Hungary, at the National Library. Attended by the President of Hungary.
October 1999
English diplomat Frank Foley awarded Righteous Among the Nations medal.
Foley: The Spy Who Saved 10,000 Jews, by Michael Smith, is published in England.
October 1999
The Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews and the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations, under the Vatican’s auspices, announce the creation of the International Catholic-Jewish Historical Commission to review the previously published 11 volumes of material published by the Vatican between 1965 and 1981. Three Jewish and three Catholic scholars serve on the Commission.
November 1999
Dr. Harald Feller, Swiss diplomat in Budapest, receives the Righteous Among the Nations award.
Aristides de Sousa Mendes is honored by the European Parliament.
2000’s
2000
The Canadian provinces of Alberta, Manitoba, and Nova Scotia enacted legislation to recognize Holocaust Memorial Day in 2000.
2000
On 22 November 2000, Judge Edward R. Korman announced a settlement of the World Jewish Congress lawsuit against Swiss banks with his approval of a plan featuring the payment of $1.25 billion into funds controlled by the Israeli Banking Trust. Judah Gribetz was appointed Special Master to administer the plan, which is sometimes called the Gribetz Plan after its chief author.
2000
David Irving v Penguin Books and Deborah Lipstadt is a case in English law, decided in 2000, against American author Deborah Lipstadt and her publisher Penguin Books, filed in an English court by the British author David Irving in 1996, asserting that Lipstadt had libeled him in her book Denying the Holocaust. The court ruled that the Irving's claim of libel relating to English defamation law and Holocaust denial was not valid because his deliberate distortion of evidence has been shown to be substantially true.
2000
Visas for Life Project nominates Turkish diplomats who rescued Jews during the Holocaust. They are honored with a medal of heroism by the Turkish government. Honored are Selahattin Ülkümen, Necdet Kent and Namik Kemal Yolga. All three of these heroic diplomats, in their late 80's and 90's, were able to receive these medals personally.
2000
Swiss diplomat Ernst Vonrufs is awarded the Righteous Among the Nations status by Yad Vashem.
2000
Polish diplomat-courier Jan Karski, who warned the western world of the Holocaust, passes away.
2000
Book on Carl Lutz, Dangerous Diplomacy: The Story of Carl Lutz, Rescuer of 62,000 Hungarian Jews, by Dr. Theo Tschuy, is published.
2000
The Man Who Stopped the Trains to Auschwitz: George Mantello, El Salvador, and Switzerland’s Finest Hour, by David Kranzler, is published.
2000
Book on Spanish diplomat Don Angel Sanz-Briz, Un Español Frente al Holocausto, by Diego Carcedo, is published.
January 2000
Visas for Life: The Righteous Diplomats exhibit opens at the International Forum on the Holocaust in Stockholm, Sweden. This program is attended by 40 heads of state and the exhibit is visited by the King and Queen of Sweden.
March 12, 2000
The Day of Pardon of the Holy Year 2000 celebrated in St. Peter’s Basilica. Document, prepared by the International Theological Commission. (7 March 2000).
Pope John Paul II officiates at a special penitential rite asking God’s forgiveness for the sins, past and present, of the Catholic Church. Among the sins for which he asks pardon are sins against the Jewish people.
March 20-26, 2000
Jubilee Pilgrimage of Pope John Paul II to Israel. He visits Jordan and Israel, meeting with religious and government leaders. This is the first time that a Pope officially visits Israel and enters through the front door.
March 23, 2000
Pope John Paul II visits Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority at Har Hazikaron in Jerusalem. This is the center of the Jewish people for Holocaust commemoration. In the Hall of Remembrance, the pontiff delivers speech… “the heart feels an extreme need for silence.” He visits with six Holocaust survivors, including one he helped save at the end of the war. The Pope visits the Western Wall and places a note in the wall asking the Jewish people for forgiveness.
April 2000
Visas for Life: The Righteous Diplomats exhibit opens at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. Opening program is held in the hall of the General Assembly. Many of the families of the diplomats are in attendance. Polish diplomat Jan Karski and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel are the guests of honor.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel becomes honorary board member of Visas for Life Project.
May 2000
Visas for Life exhibit opens at the national convention of the American Jewish Committee. Dinner attended by U.S. Secretary of State, the Prime Minister of Sweden and the President of Germany.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., dedicates exhibit honoring diplomats Sugihara and Zwartendijk, called Flight and Rescue.
July 2000
Visas for Life: The Righteous Diplomats exhibit opens at the United Nations European headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Exhibit is sponsored by the Secretary General and the Chief of Protocol, Mehmet Ülkümen.
July 1, 2000
In Poland the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) begin its activities. The IPN is a founding member of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience. Since 2020, the IPN headquarters have been located at Postępu 18 Street in Warsaw. The IPN has eleven branches in other cities and seven delegation offices. [Wikipedia]
July 7, 2000
Israel designates Dr. Feng Shan Ho with Righteous Among the Nations status.
August 2000
Visas for Life exhibit opens at the National Museum in Ljubljana, Slovenia. In attendance is the President of Slovenia.
September 2000
Ambassador Per Anger becomes honorary citizen of the state of Israel.
The Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Diplomatic Institute, publishes Spared Lives: The Actions of Three Portuguese Diplomats in World War II.
Japanese foreign ministry dedicates memorial to Sugihara in its headquarters. Ministry formally apologizes to Mrs. Sugihara for not recognizing Sugihara’s work earlier.
Film Sugihara: Conspiracy of Kindness wins prestigious Independent Documentary Association award and first place in Hollywood Film Festival.
September 3, 2000
Pope John Paul II beatifies (declares “blessed”) Pope John XXIII (Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli). Roncalli was the Papal Nuncio in Turkey who saved 24,000 Jews. The Visas for Life Project supports the beatification.
September 11, 2000
The Oświęcim Synagogue, also called the Auschwitz Synagogue reopens restored by the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation of New York. It is an active synagogue used for prayers by groups and individuals visiting Auschwitz. The adjoining house was purchased by the foundation and turned into a contemporary museum called the Auschwitz Jewish It depicts the life of Jews in pre-war Oświęcim
October 8, 2000
In Poland incumbent President Aleksander Kwaśniewski is easily re-elected in the first round with more than 50% of the vote.
October 25, 2000
The Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial is dedicated. It is also known as the Nameless Library stands in Judenplatz in the first district of Vienna. It is the central memorial for the Austrian victims of the Holocaust.
November 2000
Documentary film on diplomatic rescue, Diplomats for the Damned, premieres at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Theater. Film is distributed along with student guide to schools and airs on the History Channel.
December 6, 2000
A monument to Willy Brandt its unveiled in Willy Brandt Square in Warsaw (near the Warsaw Ghetto Heroes Monument) on the eve of the 30th anniversary of his famous gesture.
December 29, 2000
L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican’s official newspaper, publishes “The Legacy of Abraham, Gift of Christmas.” It is written by Cardinal Ratzinger, who writes about the Holocaust: “…it cannot be denied that a certain measure of insufficient resistance to these atrocities on the part of Christians is explained by the anti-Jewish legacy present in the souls of no small number of Christians.”
2001
Beatification of Pope John XXIII. Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was the Papal Nuncio in Turkey who saved 24,000 Jews. The Visas for Life Project supports the beatification.
2001
An annual national memorial to the victims of the Holocaust in the United Kingdom is instituted.
2001
Slovakia criminalized denial of fascist crimes in general in late 2001; in May 2005, the term "Holocaust" was explicitly adopted by the penal code and in 2009, it became illegal to deny any act regarded by an international criminal court as genocide.
2001
Elow Kihlgren, Swedish diplomat stationed in Italy, is honored as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem.
2001
Florian Manoliu, Romanian diplomat stationed in Hungary, is honored as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem.
2001
Howard Elting, Sr., US Consul in Bern, Switzerland, who passed on the Auschwitz Report to the State Department with an endorsement of credibility, passes away.
2001
Portuguese government obtains the old Aristides de Sousa Mendes estate in Cabanas de Viriato, begins raising money for its restoration as a tribute to his rescue work.
2001
Portuguese President Mario Soares apologizes to the Portuguese Jewish community for the injustices of the Portuguese Inquisition in 1496. He does this in conjunction with honoring de Sousa Mendes.
2001
An official Russian Working Group issues report acknowledging the possibility of Raoul Wallenberg’s death in 1947. It stresses that current evidence does not exclude the possibility of Wallenberg having lived some time beyond 1947.
January 2001
Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson formally apologizes to Raoul Wallenberg’s family for the country’s handling of his case.
January 12, 2001
The Eliasson Report is released. It is a 700-page report released under the auspices of the Swedish Foreign Ministry. It is the result of a ten-year investigation into the disappearance of Raoul Wallenberg. It outlines the failure of the Swedish government to intervene on behalf of Raoul Wallenberg. It also exposes the complicity of the Swedish government in its failure to recover Raoul Wallenberg from Soviet imprisonment. The report acknowledges significant mistakes were made by Sweden.
May 4, 2001
At the 17th meeting of the International Liaison Committee in New York, Catholic Church officials state that they will change how Judaism is dealt with in Catholic seminaries and schools. In part, they state:
The curricula of Catholic seminaries and schools of theology should reflect the central importance of the Church's new understanding of its relationship to Jews....Courses on Bible, developments by which both the Church and rabbinic Judaism emerged from early Judaism will establish a substantial foundation for ameliorating "the painful ignorance of the history and traditions of Judaism of which only negative aspects and often caricature seem to form part of the stock ideas of many Christians".
August 2001
Monument dedicated to Raoul Wallenberg is unveiled in Stockholm, Sweden.
September 2001
Visas for Life exhibit opens at the Memorial du Martyr Juif Inconnu at the Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine in Paris, France. Exhibit opening ceremony takes place at the Hotel de Ville (City Hall) of Paris. Opening is attended by the Mayor of Paris and members of the Rothschild family.
2002
A census indicates that the total population of Poland is 38,230,080.
2002
Ambassador Per Anger, Raoul Wallenberg's colleague in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45, passes away.
2002
Consul General Necdet Kent, Turkish Consul in Paris who saved Jews, passes away.
2002
Luiz Martins de Souza Dantas, the Brazilian Ambassador to France in 1940-1943, is designation Righteous Among the Nations by the State of Israel.
2002
Pope John XXIII, written by Thomas Cahill, is published. Extensive references about his rescue of Eastern European Jews are presented in the book.
2002
Becsület és batorsag: Carl Lutz és a budapesti zsidok (Honour and Courage: Carl Lutz and the Budapest Jews), by Dr. Theo Tschuy, is published in Hungary.
2002
The Visas for Life Project sponsors commemorative medals honoring Raoul Wallenberg and Carl Lutz. These medals are issued by the Israeli State Coins and Medals.
January 2002
Canadian Human Rights Tribunal delivers a ruling in a complaint involving Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel's website, in which it is found to be contravening the Canadian Human Rights Act. The court orderes Zündel to cease communicating hate messages.
February 2002
Consul Carl Lutz becomes honorary citizen of the State of Israel.
March 13, 2002
In Romania, Emergency Ordinance No. 31 prohibits Holocaust denial. It was ratified on 6 May 2006. The law also prohibits racist, fascist, xenophobic symbols, uniforms, and gestures: proliferation of which is punishable with imprisonment from between six months to five years.
April 2002
Visas for Life exhibit opens at the London Jewish Cultural Centre. Many European ambassadors are in attendance. Several new European diplomatic rescuers are discovered.
July 4, 2002
A lone gunman opens fire at the airline ticket counter of El Al, Israel's national airline, at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California. Two people are killed and four others are injured before the gunman is fatally shot by a security guard after also being wounded by him.
August 4, 2002
Raoul Wallenberg’s 90th birthday is celebrated. Renewed interest in his rescue story is generated.
The Visas for Life exhibit adds the role of Italian diplomats who rescued Jews in Yugoslavia, Greece, and Southern France. At least 17 Italian diplomats were active in the rescue of Jews in these areas. These diplomats are officially nominated by the Visas for Life Project to be honored by the State of Israel with the designation of Righteous Person.
Becsület és batorsag: Carl Lutz és a budapesti zsidok (Honour and Courage: Carl Lutz and the Budapest Jews), by Dr. Theo Tschuy, is published in Hungary.
October 25, 2002
The Dimitar Peshev House-Museum is opened in Kyustendil, Peshev's home town, to commemorate his life and actions to prevent the deportation of Bulgarian Jews during the Holocaust.
December 2002
European Union summit held in Copenhagen formally invites Poland to join the EU in 2004.
Sugihara memorial statue is dedicated in Los Angeles.
2003
The Visas for Life Project sponsors a commemorative medal, issued by the Israeli State Mint, honoring Chiune Sugihara.
2003
The Visas for Life Project nominates 50 Italian diplomats, soldiers and policemen, representing the occupied zones of Yugoslavia, Athens and southern France, for the Righteous Among the Nations Award of Yad Vashem.
2003
US Postal Service announces it will issue a commemorative stamp honoring Hiram “Harry” Bingham IV.
2003
The book The Righteous, by Martin Gilbert, is published.
March 2003
The first independent, non-governmental commission on the Raoul Wallenberg case presents its findings in Stockholm, Sweden. Headed by Ingemar Eliasson, the commission examined the Swedish political leadership’s action in regard to Raoul Wallenberg, 1945-2001. The commission concludes that the Swedish government mishandled the Wallenberg case through its lack of initiative during the early years, 1945-1947.
Raoul Wallenberg is made an honorary citizen of Budapest.
2003
Bulgaria officially designates March 10 as Holocaust Remembrance Day and the "Day of the Salvation of the Bulgarian Jews and of the Victims of the Holocaust and of the Crimes against Humanity".
April 2003
The Visas for Life Project, along with Enrico Mantello, The Wallenberg Society of the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford, and the Mowszowski family, sponsors commemorative medals honoring Raoul Wallenberg, Carl Lutz and Chiune Sugihara. These medals are issued by the Israeli State Coins and Medals.
April 16, 2003
The Treaty of Accession 2003 is signed. It is the agreement between the member states of the European Union and ten countries (Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia, on joining the EU.
June 2003
Poles vote in a referendum in favor of joining the European Union.
June 4, 2003
A street in Vienna is named for Gilberto Bosques.
June 7, 2003
Selahattin Ülkümen, the Turkish diplomat who saved Jews on the island of Rhodes, passes away in Istanbul.
June 7-8, 2003
A referendum on joining the European Union was held in Poland. The proposal was approved by 77.6% of voters. Poland subsequently joined the European Union that year following the ratification of the Treaty of Accession 2003. The country's first European Parliament elections were held in 2004.
June 17-18, 2003
The Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution "On Anti-Semitism" stating in part:
"RESOLVED, That the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, June 17–18, 2003, denounce all forms of anti-Semitism as contrary to the teachings of our Messiah and an assault on the revelation of Holy Scripture; and be it further
"RESOLVED, That we affirm to Jewish people around the world that we stand with them against any harassment that violates our historic commitments to religious liberty and human dignity; and be it finally
"RESOLVED, That we call on governmental and religious leaders across the world to stand against all forms of bigotry, hatred, or persecution."
September 2003
A memorial plaque honoring Jan Zwartendijk was unveiled in Kaunas, Lithuania at the site of his office.
Alison Leslie Gold publishes Fiet’s Vase and Other Stories of Survival, Europe 1939-1945. In her book, there are a number of stories of diplomatic rescue, including the stories of Dr. Aristides de Sousa Mendes, Wallenberg survivor Kate Wacz, Bernadotte survivor Gloria Lyon and Sugihara friend Solly Ganor.
September 7, 2003
Visas for Life exhibit opens at the City Hall in Vienna, Austria.
October 2003
Visas for Life exhibit shows in the rotunda of the Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, DC, sponsored by Congressman Tom Lantos and Senator Charles Schumer.
October 2003
Visas for Life presents commemorative medals and books to US Secretary of State Colin Powell in a special ceremony at the State Department. Letter requesting opening of archives and cooperation of countries to determine the fate of Raoul Wallenberg. Louise von Dardel presents a letter to US Secretary of State Colin Powell asking for the United States to provide information on Raoul Wallenberg’s disappearance and the failure of the US government to take action on his behalf. The US State Department acknowledges that, in essence, it cannot do anything.
October 2003
Members of the Visas for Life families attend tribute to Holocaust survivors in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the founding of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Present diplomatic commemorative medals to the Director of the museum.
Abigail Bingham Endicott composes song Tikkun Olam (Heal the World) in honor of diplomatic rescuers.
December 11, 2003
Visas for Life exhibit opens at the Arts and Cultural Center sponsored by the Holocaust Documentation and Education Center in North Miami, Florida. Guests of honor were the Mayor of Hollywood, Florida, and former US Attorney General Janet Reno.
Dr. Harald Feller passes away in Bern, Switzerland.
2004
National Holocaust Memorial Day has been recognized in Greece since 2004.Greek: Εθνική Ημέρα Μνήμης Ολοκαυτώματος (Ethniki Imera Mnimis Olokaftomatos).
2004
Romania officially denied the Holocaust occurred on its territory up until the Wiesel Commission in 2004. The first National Day of Commemorating the Holocaust in Romania is held this year.
2004
The film The Passion of The Christ is released in 2004. Before the film was even released, there were prominent criticisms of perceived antisemitic content in the film. A joint committee of the Secretariat for Ecumenical and Inter-religious Affairs of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Department of Inter-religious Affairs of the Anti-Defamation League obtained a version of the script before it was released in theaters. They released a statement, calling it one of the most troublesome texts, relative to anti-Semitic potential, that any of us had seen in twenty-five years.
2004
Gennaro Verolino receives the Per Anger prize. At 99 years old he is the only surviving diplomat.
2004
The Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture founds the Jewish Heritage Initiative in Poland (JHIP). The Initiative is to nurture the revival of Jewish life in Poland, further awareness of this resurgence among Jews and non-Jews and foster positive interest in Poland and Polish Jews among American Jews.
January 2004
Exhibit entitled Raoul Wallenberg – One Man Can Make a Difference opens in Stockholm, Sweden, at the Jewish Museum. This exhibit is produced by the Jewish Museum in Stockholm.
February 2004
Visas for Life exhibit opens at Binyaneh Ha’oomah, Jerusalem, Israel. This is in conjunction with an international conference of the American Jewish Committee.
May 1, 2004
The largest expansion of the European Union (EU), in terms of territory, number of states, and population. The following countries (sometimes referred to as the "A10" countries include: Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. Seven of these were part of the former Eastern Bloc (of which three were from the former Soviet Union and four were and still are members of the Central European alliance). [Wikipedia]
2004 May
Jewish organizations and leaders protest Estonia's erection of a statue commemorating Alfons Rebane, an Estonian SS volunteer accused of serving as "a Nazi executioner" who was "responsible for the slaughter of thousands of Jews and Russians between 1941 and 1945."
2004 June
A series of attacks on Jewish cemeteries in Wellington, New Zealand.
July 26, 2004
Visas for Life: The Righteous and Honorable Diplomats exhibition opens at the Hungarian Foreign Ministry building in Budapest. This is for a gathering of Hungarian diplomats in honor of the 60th anniversary of diplomatic rescue in Budapest.
August 30, 2004
Survivors' Park a park in Łódź commemorating Jews who went through the Ghetto Litzmannstadt during World War II, is dedicated on the 60th anniversary of the liquidation of the ghetto. The park is located in the former Lodz Ghetto.
September 2004
The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, a part of the Council of Europe, called on its member nations to "ensure that criminal law in the field of combating racism covers anti-Semitism" and to penalize intentional acts of public incitement to violence, hatred or discrimination, public insults and defamation, threats against a person or group, and the expression of antisemitic ideologies. It urged member nations to "prosecute people who deny, trivialize or justify the Holocaust". The report was drawn up in wake of a rise in attacks on Jews in Europe. The report said it was Europe's "duty to remember the past by remaining vigilant and actively opposing any manifestations of racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and intolerance... Anti-Semitism is not a phenomenon of the past and... the slogan 'never again' is as relevant today as it was 60 years ago."
September 27, 2004
Raoul Wallenberg is honored in Budapest, Hungary, in the presence of the Swedish State Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Hans Dahlgren. An international conference of scholars is convened to discuss Raoul Wallenberg and his rescue mission.
The Israeli Knesset agrees to continue investigation regarding the disappearance of Raoul Wallenberg in the former Soviet Union. The Knesset also will establish an educational curriculum to honor the rescue activities of Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest.
2005
The European Union has recognized International Holocaust Remembrance Day since 2005.
2005
In 2005 the United States had a "moment of silence" on the 60th anniversary of the surrender of Nazi Germany.
2005
Polish Institute of National Remembrance has been creating “An Index of Poles Persecuted for Helping Jews”. To date, the researchers have been able to identify around 500 victims.
January 17, 2005
Raoul Wallenberg is commemorated all over the world on the 60th anniversary of his disappearance.
January 25, 2005
The Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland on the initiative of Mayor of Warsaw Lech Kaczyński, the Museum of the History of Polish Jews (Polin) was formally established as a public-private partnership of the Association of JHI, the City of Warsaw, and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
January 27, 2005
Mémorial de la Shoah is the Holocaust museum in Paris is dedicated by French President Jacques after a major upgrade. The memorial is in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, in the Marais district, which had a large Jewish population at the beginning of World War II.
April 2005
Yad Vashem opens its new museum, making it the largest installation on the Holocaust in the world.
April 2, 2005
Death of Pope John Paul II.
May 2005
Poland is one of 10 new states to join the European Union.
May 2005
Exhibit is opened honoring Swiss diplomat Carl Lutz in the former Glass House on Vadasz Utca.
May 2005
WGBH, the Public Broadcasting System affiliate in Boston, broadcasts “Sugihara: Conspiracy of Kindness” on a national broadcast.
June 2005
A group of 15 members of the State Duma of Russia demands that Judaism and Jewish organizations be banned from the country. 500 prominent Russians demand that the state prosecutor investigate ancient Jewish texts as "anti-Russian" and ban Judaism. The investigation is launched, but halted among international an outcry.
September 19, 2005
Simon Wiesenthal dies at his home in Vienna at the age of 96. He is buried in Israel.
October 17, 2005
Plaque is placed at the Carl Lutz monument, in the old Pest Ghetto, in Budapest. Agnes Hirschi, daughter of Carl Lutz, is in attendance.
November 1, 2005
International Holocaust Remembrance Day was designated by the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 60/7 on 1 November 2005 during the 42nd plenary session.
November 17, 2005
Cardinal Gennaro Verolino passes away at his home in Rome. He is 99 years old. He is the last living diplomat who rescued Jews during the war.
December 5, 2005
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad widens the hostility between Iran and Israel by denying the Holocaust during a speech in the Iranian city of Zahedan. He made the following comments on live television: "They have invented a myth that Jews were massacred and place this above God, religions and the prophets."
December 23, 2005
Lech Aleksander Kaczyński 18 June 1949 – 10 April 2010) is elected President of Poland. A Polish lawyer and politician who served as the Mayor of Warsaw from 2002 until 2005, and as President of Poland from 2005 until his death in 2010.
2006
Poland's Jewish population is estimated to be approximately 20,000; most living in Warsaw, Wrocław, Kraków, and Bielsko-Biała. There are however no official census records.
2006
The new Treblinka Museum opens in 2006. It is later expanded and made into a branch of the Siedlce Regional Museum located in historic Ratusz.
2006
The Netherlands rejects a draft law proposing a maximum sentence of one year on denial of genocidal acts in general, although specifically denying the Holocaust remains a criminal offense there.
2006
John Gudenus receives a one-year suspended sentence for breaking the Verbotsgesetz, Austria's laws against denying or diminishing the Holocaust.
January 11, 2006
Alexandr Koptsev stabs nine people at Bolshaya Bronnaya Synagogue.
February 2006
David Irving is convicted in Austria, where Holocaust denial is illegal, for a speech he had made in 1989 in which he denied the existence of gas chambers at Auschwitz.
April 2006
The Red Cross Tracing Services archives at Bad Arolson, Germany, are opened for the first time for public viewing.
May 9, 2006
The Helsinki Commission holds a briefing titled "Tools for Combating Anti-Semitism: Police Training and Holocaust Education".
May 30, 2006
US Postal Service honors American diplomat Hiram “Harry” Bingham with a commemorative postage stamp as part of a “Distinguished American Diplomat” series.
December 11, 2006,
An Iranian state-sponsored "International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust" opens to widespread condemnation. The conference, called for by and held at the behest of Ahmadinejad, was widely described as a "Holocaust denial conference" or a "meeting of Holocaust deniers".
2007
The Polish government asks UNESCO to officially change the name "Auschwitz Concentration Camp" to "Former Nazi German Concentration Camp Auschwitz-Birkenau", to clarify that the camp had been built and operated by Nazi Germany. In 2007, UNESCO's World Heritage Committee changed the camp's name to "Auschwitz Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940–1945)." Previously some German media, including Der Spiegel, had called the camp "Polish". [Wikipedia]
2007
The Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes (Czech: Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů, ÚSTR) is founded. It is a Czech government agency and research institute. It was founded by the Czech government. Its purpose is to gather, analyze and make accessible documents from Nazi and Communist totalitarian regimes.
2007
In 2007 Italy rejects a Holocaust denial law proposing a prison sentence of up to four years.
2007
The Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum is opened. It is a museum commemorating the Jewish refugees who lived in Shanghai during World War II after fleeing Europe to escape the Holocaust. It is located at the former Ohel Moshe or Moishe Synagogue, in the Hongkou district, Shanghai, China.
2007
Father Gennaro Verolino, the Vatican assistant nuncio in Budapest 1944-1495, is honored by Israel as Righteous Among the Nations.
February 3, 2007
Historical seminar on Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg is conducted in Budapest sponsored by the Swedish Foreign Ministry. Raoul Wallenberg’s niece, Louise von Dardel, attends.
February 15, 2007
Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel is convicted on 14 counts of incitement under Germany's Volksverhetzung law, which bans the incitement of hatred against a portion of the population and is given the maximum sentence of five years in prison.
March 24, 2007
Dedication of Raoul Wallenberg Street in Paris, France.
May 2007
Ekrem Ajanovic, a Bosniak MP in the Bosnian Parliament proposes legislation on criminalizing the denial of Holocaust, genocide and crimes against humanity. This is the first time that somebody in Bosnia and Herzegovina's Parliament proposed such a legislation. Bosnian Serb MPs voted against this legislation and proposed that such an issue should be resolved within the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
October 2007
A tribunal declares Spain's Holocaust denial law unconstitutional.
2008
The Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution stating in part, "RESOLVED, That we join in prayer for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6-7), calling upon world leaders to renounce the growing tide of anti-Semitism".
January 27, 2008
Exhibit on Carl Lutz opens at the United Nations as part of the commemoration of the Holocaust.
Visa Retten Leben: Die “Gerechten Diplomaten” [Visas for Life: The Righteous and Honorable Diplomats] exhibit opens in Idar-Oberstein, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
February 28, 2008
A memorial to internment and deportation (Mémorial de l'internement et de la déportation Camp de Royallieu) was opened on the site of the former internment and deportation camp of Compiègne in France. The camp's prisoners were made up of political prisoners, Jews, and high ranking French civil servants. It was a center for deportation to Auschwitz.
March 30, 2008
Visas for Life exhibit opens at the Ellis Island/Statue of Liberty museum.
June 3, 2008
The Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism is signed by prominent European politicians, former political prisoners and historians, among them former Czech President Václav Havel and future German President Joachim Gauck. It is a declaration which is initiated by the Czech government and calling for "Europe-wide condemnation of, and education about, the crimes of communism." Much of the content of the declaration reproduced demands formulated by the European People's Party in 2004, and draws heavily on totalitarian theory. [Wikipedia]
October 8, 2008
Mrs. Yukiko Sugihara passes away at the age of 94.
2009
The film Disobedience: The Sousa Mendes Story is released.
2009 April
Members of the Lithuanian Jewish community report significant increases in anti-Semitism. Local Jewish leader Simonas Aperavicius notes anti-Semitism in the Lithuanian media.
2009 June
A lone 88-year-old gunman and Neo-Nazi, James von Brunn enters the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., shooting and fatally wounding Stephen Tyrone Johns, a security officer of African-American descent.
June 16, 2009
The Virtual Shtetl (Polish: Wirtualny Sztetl) a bilingual Polish-English website portal of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, devoted to the Jewish history of Poland is opened. It lists over 1,900 towns with maps, statistics, and pictures. [Wikipedia]
August 23, 2009
The Black Ribbon Day, officially known in the European Union as the Europe-wide Day of Remembrance for the victims of all totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, is observed for the first time.
It is an international day of remembrance for victims of totalitarian regimes, specifically Stalinist, communist, Nazi, and fascist regimes. It is formally recognized by the European Union, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and some other countries. It is observed on 23 August. It symbolizes the rejection of "extremism, intolerance and oppression" according to the European Union. The purpose of the Day of Remembrance is to preserve the memory of the victims of mass deportations and genocide, while promoting democratic values to reinforce peace and stability in Europe. It is one of the two official remembrance days or observances of the European Union, alongside Europe Day. Under the name Black Ribbon Day, it is also an official remembrance day of Canada, the United States, and other countries. August 23 was chosen to coincide with the date of the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, a 1939 non-aggression pact between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. Putin's Russian government has attacked it for its condemnation of Stalinism.
2010’s
2010
In 2010 the Parliament of Hungary adopted legislation punishing the denial of the genocides committed by National Socialist or Communist systems, without mentioning the word "Holocaust".
2010
Sousa Mendes Foundation is created. It honors Portuguese diplomat Aristides de Sousa Mendes. One of its goals is to restore de Sousa Mendes’ family estate and to create a museum at the site.
April 10, 2010
Polish Air Force Flight 101, crashes near the Russian city of Smolensk, killing all 96 people on board. Among the victims were the president of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, and his wife, Maria, the former president of Poland in exile, Ryszard Kaczorowski, the chief of the Polish General Staff and other senior Polish military officers, 18 members of the Polish Parliament, senior members of the Polish clergy and relatives of victims of the Katyn massacre [Wikipedia]
El Salvadoran diplomat rescuer Arturo Castellanos is declared in 2010 by Yad Vashem the Righteous Among the Nations.
July 4, 2010
Bronisław Maria Komorowski a Polish politician and historian is elected president of Poland. He serves as President of Poland from 2010 to 2015.
April 10, 2010
Polish President Lech Kaczyński and many government and military officials are killed in plane crash.
July 4, 2010
Bronisław Komorowski is elected President of Poland.
2011
7,353 Polish citizens declare their nationality as "Jewish," an increase from just 1,055 during the previous 2002 census.
2011
The Reconciliation of European Histories Group is an informal all-party group in the European Parliament involved in promoting the Prague Process in all of Europe, aimed at coming to terms with the totalitarian past in many countries of Europe. As of 2011, the group had 40 members, The group has co-hosted a number of public hearings and other meetings in the European Parliament on totalitarianism and communist crimes in Eastern and Central Europe. The Reconciliation of European Histories Group also cooperates closely with the Working Group on the Platform of European Memory and Conscience. [Wikipedia]
2011
The Hong Kong Holocaust and Tolerance Centre (HKHTC) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to advancing Holocaust education and promoting tolerance. s the first organization devoted to Holocaust education in China. The Centre also provides educational content and opportunities about other regional genocides, such as the Nanjing Massacre and Cambodian genocide.
2011
The first man is charged with Holocaust denial in Budapest. The Court sentences the man to 18 months in prison, suspended for three years, and probation.
October 14, 2011
The Platform of European Memory and Conscience is established. It is an educational project of the European Union bringing together government institutions and NGOs from EU countries active in research, documentation, awareness raising and education about the crimes of totalitarian regimes. Its membership includes 68 government agencies and NGOs from 15 EU member states and 8 non-EU countries including the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada. Its members include the Institute of National Remembrance, the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial, the Stasi Records Agency, and the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. The platform has offices in Prague and Brussels (formerly). The President of the platform is Łukasz Kamiński, former President of the Polish Institute of National Remembrance.
2012
Section 335 of the Act C of 2012 on the Criminal Code of Hungary regulates the "use of symbols of totalitarianism", including the swastika, the insignia of the SS, the arrow cross, the hammer and sickle, and the five-pointed red star.
2012
Witold Pilecki's war time diary is translated into English by Garliński and published under the title The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery.
July 22, 2012
To mark the 70th anniversary of the Vél d'Hiv' roundup a memorial museum at the Drancy internment camp is opened opposite the sculpture memorial and railway wagon by the President of France, François Hollande. It documents the persecution of the Jews in France. Hollande recognized that this event was a crime committed "in France, by France," and emphasized that the deportations in which French police participated were offences committed against French values, principles, and ideals
September 12, 2012
The Camp des Milles is a French internment camp is dedicated as a museum and memorial site by French President Jacques Chirac. It was opened in September 1939, in a former tile factory near the village of Les Milles, part of the commune of Aix-en-Provence (Bouches-du-Rhône).
September 28, 2012
Malmö Synagogue in Sweden is attacked with an explosive, shattering a window.
November 8, 2012
The film The Consul of Bordeaux, which honors Portuguese diplomatic rescuer Aristides de Sousa Mendes, is released.
April 19, 2013
POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews (Polish: Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich) is dedicated on the site of the former Warsaw Ghetto. The Hebrew word Polin in the museum's English name means either "Poland" or "rest here" The core exhibition opens in October 2014.
2014
The French state-owned railway company, (SNCF) is compelled to allocate $60 million to American Jewish Holocaust survivors for its role in the transport of deportees to Germany. It is approximately $100,000 per survivor. The SNCF was forced by German occupation authorities to cooperate in providing transport for French Jews to the border.
2014
The government of Spain passes a law allowing dual citizenship to Jewish descendants who apply, to "compensate for shameful events in the country's past." Sephardi Jews who can prove they are the descendants of those Jews expelled from Spain because of the Alhambra Decree can "become Spaniards without leaving home or giving up their present nationality."
January 6, 2014
France's interior minister Manuel Valls said that performances considered anti-Semitic may be banned by local officials.
April 27, 2014
Pope John XIII and Pope John Paul II are canonized as saints by the Catholic Church.
July 20, 2014
Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg is awarded a Congressional Gold Medal given to him by the United States Congress in recognition of his heroic activities in aiding thousands of Jews in Budapest, Hungary. Wallenberg’s sister is in attendance and receives the medal for the family.
2015
The Porte de Vincennes siege occurs at a Hypercacher kosher superette in Porte de Vincennes (20th arrondissement of Paris) in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo shooting two days earlier, and concurrently with the Dammartin-en-Goële hostage crisis in which the two Charlie Hebdo gunmen were cornered.
2015
Persona Non Grata, a film documenting Japanese diplomatic rescuer Chiune Sugihara, is released. It premieres at the Jewish film festival in Warsaw.
2015
Agnieszka Haska published an article about saving Jews by the Polish diplomats in the Lados Group in Bern, Switzerland.
January 2015
The Hungarian court ordered far-right on-line newspaper Kuruc.info to delete its article denying the Holocaust published in July 2013, which was the first ruling in Hungary of its kind.
January 2015
La Mort aux Juifs was a hamlet under the jurisdiction of the French commune of Courtemaux in the Loiret department in north-central France. Its name has been translated as "Death to Jews" or "The death of the Jews". Under pressure from the national authorities, the municipal council retired the name in January 2015. A similar request about the name had been denied in 1992. The area is now split between the nearby hamlets of Les Croisilles and La Dietary.
January 10, 2015
French terrorist Amedy Coulibaly takes hostages in a kosher supermarket in Paris in the course of the Charlie Hebdo shooting. He claims in the media that he wanted to kill Jews.
February 3, 2015
2015 Nice stabbing three soldiers, guarding a Jewish community center in Nice, France, were attacked with a knife by Moussa Coulibaly, a lone-wolf terrorist.
February 14–15, 2015
2015 Copenhagen shootings.
February 16, 2015
Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu causes outrage by calling for a massive immigration of Jewish people from Europe to Israel saying, "we say to the Jews, to our brothers and sisters, Israel is your home and that of every Jew." French Prime Minister Manuel Valls replies by saying "the place for French Jews is France."
May 25, 2015
Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski dies. He was a Polish military officer, politician and de facto dictator of the Polish People's Republic from 1981 until 1989.
June 2015
Laurent Louis receives a suspended 6-month sentence for breaking the 1995 Belgian law against Holocaust denial and lost his right to run for office in the next six years.
July 2015
The Mayors United Against Antisemitism initiative was developed by the American Jewish Committee in July 2015 and launched in Europe later in 2015.
August 6, 2015
Andrzej Duda becomes President of Poland.
October 2015
The Catholic Church in Poland publishes a letter referring to antisemitism as a sin against the commandment to love one's neighbor. The letter also acknowledged the heroism of those Poles who risked their lives to shelter Jews as Nazi Germany carried out the Holocaust in occupied Poland. The bishops who signed the letter cited the Polish Pope John Paul II who was opposed to antisemitism, and believed in founding Catholic-Jewish relations.
October 2015
The Camp des Milles is a French internment camp, opened in September 1939, in a former tile factory near the village of Les Milles, is selected by UNESCO as the headquarters for its new Chair of Education for Citizenship, Human Sciences and Shared Memories.
December 2015
The Vatican releases a 10,000-word document that, among other things, states that Jews do not need to be converted to find salvation, and that Catholics should work with Jews to fight antisemitism.
December 2015
The United Nations officially recognizes Yom Kippur, stating that from then on, no official meetings will take place on the day. As well, the United Nations states that, beginning in 2016, they will have nine official holidays and seven floating holidays which each employee will be able to choose one of. It stated that the floating holidays will be Yom Kippur, Day of Vesak, Diwali, Gurpurab, Orthodox Christmas, Orthodox Good Friday, and Presidents' Day. This is the first time the United Nations officially recognizes any Jewish holiday.
2016
Following the election of the Law and Justice party, the government formulated in 2016 a new IPN law. The 2016 law stipulated that the Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation should oppose publications of false information that dishonors or harms the Polish nation. It also called for popularizing history as part of "an element of patriotic education". [Wikipedia]
2016
The Museum of the History of Polish Jews (Polin) in Warsaw wins the title of European Museum of the Year Award
2016
Trade between Israel and the EU totals €34.3 billion. Trade between Israel and Poland is US$682 million. Israel's exports to Poland includes: gas turbines, packaged medicine, calcium phosphate, fruits, vegetables and medical instruments. Poland's exports to Israel include food-based products, textiles processing machines, vehicle chassis, cars, buses, dairy products, and wheat.
A museum honoring Witold Pilecki, Dom Rodziny Pileckich, is established in that town In 2012 Powązki Cemetery was partly excavated in an effort to locate his remains.
2016
The nations that make up the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe began a three-year initiative to promote awareness and learning about anti-Semitism and to help the security of Jewish communities.
2016
The U.C. Board of Regents approved a set of Principles Against Intolerance, which condemns "anti-Semitism" and which, in an opening contextual statement, includes "anti-Semitic forms of anti-Zionism" as something that has "no place at the University of California." The principles, passed unanimously at a 23 March board meeting in San Francisco, apply to students and faculty at all 10 U.C. campuses, though the document includes no enforcement mechanism or consequences for violations.
2016
An ethics rule of the American Bar Association now forbids comments or actions that single out someone on the basis of religion, as well as other factors.
2017
The Pilecki Institute is founded in Warsaw, Poland. Its purpose is to preserve, document, and research the history of Poland in the 20th Century. Among its missions is to document aid to Polish Jews by Polish citizens during the German occupation. It is named after Holocaust rescuer Witold Pilecki.
2017
Viktor Orbán, Prime Minister of Hungary, made a speech in which he called Miklós Horthy an "exceptional statesman" and gave him the credit for the survival of Hungary. The U.S. Holocaust Museum then issued a statement denouncing Orbán and the Hungarian government for trying to "rehabilitate the reputation of Hungary's wartime leader, Miklos Horthy, who was a vocal anti-Semite and complicit in the murder of the country's Jewish population during the Holocaust."
2017
The Wallenberg family declares that Raoul Wallenberg is dead. They still intend to determine his fate.
2017
27,680 individuals are recognized by Yad Vashem and the State of Israel for rescuing Jews in the Holocaust.
2017
The Committee of Jews Who Rescued Jews, the Jewish Rescuers Project, sponsors the book Saving One’s Own, written by Dr. Mordecai Paldiel.
2017
A Jewish cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri was vandalized in an apparent anti-Semitic incident in February 2017, after which Linda Sarsour worked with other Muslim activists to launch a crowdfunding campaign to raise money to repair the damage and restore the gravesites. More than $125,000 was raised, and Sarsour pledged to donate any funds not needed at the cemetery to other Jewish community centers or sites targeted by vandalism. She said the fundraising effort would "send a united message from the Jewish and Muslim communities that there is no place for this type of hate, desecration, and violence in America".
March 8, 2017
The Zookeeper’s Wife, a film about a family who rescued Jews in the Warsaw Zoo, has its world premiere in Warsaw. The film highlights the Polish rescuers Jan and Antonina Zabinski.
June 28, 2017
In the early morning hours, one of the 9 feet (2.7 m) glass panels on the New England Holocaust Memorial was smashed with a rock.
July 16, 1917
President Emmanuel Macron specifically admits the responsibility of the French State in the roundup and deportation of Jews in France and hence, in the Holocaust. "I say it again here. It was indeed France that organized the roundup, the deportation, and thus, for almost all, death."
August 2017
Markus Buechner, the Honorary Consul of Poland in Zürich, together with journalists Zbigniew Parafianowicz and Michał Potocki describe the Lados Group rescue operation, recognizing the contribution of all group members and survival of Jewish passport holders. [Wikipedia]
August 11-12, 2017
The Unite the Right rally gathering of far-right groups in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. On the evening of Friday, 11 August, a group of white nationalists—variously numbered at dozens, around 100, and hundreds—marched through the University of Virginia's campus while chanting things including "Jews will not replace us", and the Nazi slogan "Blood and Soil". On August 12 protesters and counterprotesters gathered at Emancipation Park (formerly known as Robert E. Lee Park). White nationalist protesters chanted Nazi-era slogans, including "Blood and Soil". They shouted among other things, "Jews will not replace An attendee drove his car into a crowd of people protesting the rally, killing 32-year-old Heather D. Heyer and injuring 19 others, in what police have called a deliberate attack.
October 2017
Nigel Farage asserted in a LBC radio broadcast that the "Jewish lobby" in the United States was more concerning to him than Russian interference in American politics.
September 17, 2017
A study conducted in Germany by the Körber Foundation found that 40 percent of 14-year-olds surveyed in Germany did not know what Auschwitz was."
December 9, 2017
Gothenburg Synagogue attack takes place in Gothenburg, Sweden.
2018
It was announced that Germany agreed to grant monetary compensation to Jews who were persecuted in Algeria during World War II; this marks the first time for Jews who resided in Algeria between July 1940 and November 1942 to be compensated by the German government.
2018
The Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation amends its mission statement by the controversial Amendment to the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance to include "protecting the reputation of the Republic of Poland and the Polish Nation". The IPN investigates Nazi and Communist crimes committed between 1917 and 1990, documents its findings, and disseminates them to the public. Article 55a attempts to defend the "good name" of Poland. Initially conceived as a criminal offense (3 years of jail) with an exemption for arts and research, following an international outcry, the article was modified to a civil offense that may be tried in civil courts and the exemption was deleted. Defamation charges under the act may be made by the IPN as well as by accredited NGOs such as the Polish League Against Defamation. [Wikipedia]
2018
An Israeli man wearing a yarmulke was attacked in Berlin; the attacker allegedly beat him with a belt and shouted, "Yehudi" — the Arabic word for Jew. In response to this, thousands of Germans took part in rallies against antisemitism, many of them wearing yarmulkes.
2018
Holocaust historian Rebecca Erbelding publishes landmark book on the War Refugee Board. The book’s title is Rescue Board: The Untold Story of America’s Efforts to Save the Jews of Europe.
April 2018
A survey released on Holocaust Remembrance Day found that 41% of 1,350 American adults surveyed, and 66% of millennials, did not know what Auschwitz was. 41% of millennials incorrectly claimed that 2 million Jews or less were killed during the Holocaust, while 22% said they had never heard of the Holocaust. Over 95% of all Americans surveyed were unaware that the Holocaust occurred in the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. 45% of adults and 49% of millennials weren't able to name a single Nazi concentration camp or ghetto in German-occupied Europe during the Holocaust. [Wikipedia]
October 27, 2018
11 people are murdered in an attack on the Tree of Life – Or L'Simcha synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
2019
The Warsaw Ghetto Museum is under construction and is scheduled to open in 2023.
2019
In 2019, 2,320,000 people visit the Auschwitz site, including visitors from Poland (at least 396,000), United Kingdom (200,000), United States (120,000), Italy (104,000), Germany (73,000), Spain (70,000), France (67,000), Israel (59,000), Ireland (42,000), and Sweden (40,000).
2019
A Church of England report is published called "God's Unfailing World: Theological and practical perspectives on Christian-Jewish relations", that encouraged Christians to be repentant for "sins of the past" against Jews, and to challenge current stereotypes and attitudes against them. The report was the first time the Church of England makes an authoritative statement about antisemitism.
2019
Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar draws condemnation from Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic House leadership, and a number of Jewish organizations for a tweet that is perceived as antisemitic, in which she alleges that American support for Israel was rooted in money spent by pro-Israel lobbying organizations, notably the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. She later apologized for the tweet in a statement.
2019
Visas for Life and the Institute for the Study of Rescue and Altruism submit proposal for Congressional Gold Medal for American rescuers and rescue organizations. The proposal is presented to several members of the US Senate and House of Representatives. The American Jewish Committee endorses the Congressional Gold Medal proposal.
2019
Holocaust historian Richard Breitman publishes The Berlin Mission: The American Who Resisted Nazi Germany from Within. It is about American diplomatic rescuer Raymond Hermann Geist.
2019
Svajci Védelem Alatt (the book Under Swiss Protection in Hungarian) by Agnes Hirschi and Charlotte Schallié is published.
2019
The Volunteer: One Man's Mission to Lead an Underground Army Inside Auschwitz and Stop the Holocaust, about Witold Pilecki is published.
January 2019
A number of documents related to the Ładoś Group are acquired by the Polish Ministry of Culture, with the assistance of Honorary Consul Markus Blechner, from a private collector in Israel in 2018. Named the Eiss Archive, they are displayed in the Polish embassy in Switzerland in January 2019, and later are transferred to the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland.
February 2019
During a visit to Poland, Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu says, "Poles collaborated with the Nazis". His office clarifies that this was a misquote by the newspaper and he did not say "The Poles" but "a not insignificant number of Poles". The explanation is accepted by the Polish government.
February 2019
A Polish nationalist based in France disrupted The New Polish School of Holocaust Scholarship conference in EHESS, Paris.
April 2019
Yad Vashem's Righteous Among The Nations grant the title to Konstanty Rokicki and offered "appreciation" to Aleksander Ładoś and Stefan Ryniewicz arguing that Rokicki headed the Ładoś Group. The document erroneously called Ładoś and Ryniewicz "consuls".
April 27, 2019
The Chabad synagogue, in the city of Poway in California, is the site of an attack in which multiple people were shot during Passover services.
December 2019
In December 2019 list of names of 3262 holders of passports issued by Ładoś Group is presented at the Pilecki Institute in Warsaw. It is estimated though that from 5000 to 7000 names of the passports' bearers remain unknown. The research has been carried out by team led by Jakub Kumoch in Arolsen Archives - International Center on Nazi Persecution, Yad Vashem, and Archives of New Proceedings in Warsaw. Diplomats from the Ładoś Group – Ładoś, Rokicki, Kühl and Ryniewicz – were named in the letter of thanks from Agudat Israel from January 1945. [Wikipedia]
December 10, 2019
A shooting occurs at a kosher grocery store located in the Greenville section of Jersey City, New Jersey United States. Five people are killed at the store, including the two attackers and three civilians. A civilian and two police officers are wounded. A Jersey City Police Department detective is shot and killed at a nearby cemetery just before the grocery store attack.
December 10, 2019
The Executive Order on Combating Anti-Semitism is an executive order announced by U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday and signed the next day. The White House initially indicates that the order would define Judaism as a nationality instead of a religion in the United States, though the order ultimately released was more modest in its reach. The purpose of the order is to prevent antisemitism by making it easier to use Federal laws prohibiting institutional discrimination against people based on national origin to punish discrimination against Jewish people, including opposition to policies undertaken by the government of Israel. Some American Jews applauded the order, while others object to defining Judaism as a nationality.
2020’s
2020
According to survey by researchers at the Jagiellonian University, only 10% of respondents were able to give the correct figure of the number of Jews killed during the Holocaust in Poland. Half believed that non-Jewish Poles suffered equally during the war, and 20% thought that non-Jewish Poles suffered the most.
January 1, 2020
The citizens of Poland have the world's highest count of individuals who have been recognized by Yad Vashem of Jerusalem as the Polish Righteous Among the Nations, for saving Jews from extermination during the Holocaust in World War II. There are 7,112 (as of 1 January 2020) Polish men and women recognized as Righteous Among the Nations, over a quarter of the 27,712 recognized by Yad Vashem in total. The list of Righteous is not comprehensive and it is estimated that hundreds of thousands of Poles concealed and aided hundreds of thousands of their Polish-Jewish neighbors. Many of these initiatives were carried out by individuals, but there also existed organized networks of Polish resistance which were dedicated to aiding Jews – most notably, the Żegota organization.
Mid-May 2020
Tomb of Esther and Mordechai in Hamadan, Iran subjected to arson attack.
August 24, 2020
Jewish Center at the University of Delaware subjected to an arson attack.
October 29, 2020
New Museum and Memorial in Sobibór is inaugurated. More than 700 personal items belonging to the victims of the camp, from among 11,000 artifacts held by the museum, as well as documents and photographs, form the centerpiece of the exhibition.
November 2020
Six Igbo synagogues in Nigeria are razed by soldiers. At least 50 people were killed during the siege.
December 30, 2020
Congregation Beth Israel in northwest Portland, Oregon was subjected to an arson attack.
2021
2021
There are more than 370 Holocaust Museums and centers worldwide.
2021
Yad Vashem officially recognizes 50 international diplomats who were involved in the aid and rescue of Jews in the Shoah.
2021
As of January 2021, Yad Vashem has recognized 27,921 individuals as Righteous Among the Nations. This includes 7,177 Polish individuals. (https://www.yadvashem.org/righteous/statistics.html) At a 1979 international historical conference dedicated to Holocaust rescuers, J. Friedman said in reference to Poland: "If we knew the names of all the noble people who risked their lives to save the Jews, the area around Yad Vashem would be full of trees and would turn into a forest.
2021
Visas for Life and the Institute for the Study of Rescue and Altruism in the Holocaust request from the German government and archives a list of individuals who were punished or killed for rescuing or aiding Jews.
March 24, 2021
Commemoration in Poland on the anniversary of the death of Józef and Wiktoria Ulma and their six children, murdered by the Germans along with eight Jews from the Goldman, Gruenfeld and Didner families whom they sheltered in the village of Markowa, located in the Podkarpacie region of Poland, Also remember are Poles who tried to save Jews from the Holocaust despite the threat of death.
June 2021
Poland proposes a law to cut off Holocaust restitution claims, The proposed law would prevent people who lost property in the confiscations of property by the Polish communist government (1944–1989), including large amounts of property that had belonged to Poland’s prewar Jewish population of some three million people, most of whom were murdered by Nazis. On August 14, 2021
Poland’s President Andrzej Duda signed the law. Israel recalls its envoy from Poland.
Return to Chronology of Jewish History - Parts 1-9
Updated November 23, 2021