Ahead of the International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism, observed in many countries worldwide on the initiative of the international network UNITED for Intercultural Action, Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Remembrance Center announced a historic achievement – the identities of five million Jews murdered during the Holocaust have been documented.
Yad Vashem’s Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names now records over 80% of all known victims of the Nazi genocide. The vast majority of these names were gathered through “Pages of Testimony” – special forms filled out by relatives, friends, and Holocaust survivors. Other records were discovered in archives, deportation lists, censuses, letters, diaries, and even on old tombstones.
Despite this colossal result, the names of approximately one million additional victims will likely remain unknown forever. However, modern technologies – including artificial intelligence and machine learning systems – are already helping to identify new matches in documents. Yad Vashem experts estimate these technologies could add up to a quarter of a million new records.
The Central Database of Names is accessible online in six languages at www.yadvashem.org, offering families worldwide the opportunity to trace their relatives and restore the memory of those whose lives were cut short during the most terrible tragedy of the 20th century.
