Lohomai Haghetaot (Ghetto Fighters House) & Yad Yaeled (The Museum Of The Child)
Lohomai Haghetaot is located on the grounds of Kittbutz Haghetaot, Near Haifa Israel
- Founded in April 1949 by Kibutz members who are witnesses to the mass destruction of hundreds of European Jewish communities. Nearly all of the Founders came from Poland and Lithuania, surivivors of ghettos and camps.
- Many, participants in the Jewish resistance movement, ghetto fighters partisans or soldiers in the allied armies.
- In The first days of the founding of the Kibbutz a center for documentation was established.
- The Archives contain documents reflecting the fate of individual Jews and entire Jewish Communities. Pictorial archives have over 50,000 photographs taken by the Camps. A Lexicon of "Jewish Fighters in German-occupied Poland" has been computerized and is accessible upon request.
- Special Hechalutz archives: Special section devoted to the pioneering your movement "Hechaluz" in Europe. This Movement prepared youth for Aliyah to Eretz Israel; later it played a leading role in the ghetto revolts and its members were the backbone of the Jewish fighting organizations.
- The Museum is dedicated to the memory of the poet Yitzhak Katznelson, a friend of the Halutz undergound in the Warsaw Ghetto who perished in Auschwitz in the begining of May, 1944.
- In 1951, Ghetto Fighter's House came under aegis of Takam, the United Kibbutz Movement and was recognized by the Ministry of Education and Culture as a public Institution.
- Half of its staff members are recruited from the Kibbutzim of Takam, and half are salaried employees.
- Thousands visit the museum annually, Israelis and tourists, students and soldiers in groups and individually.
- Permanent Exhibitions:
Vilna: 400 Years of Jewish Life * Olkieniki-a typical small Jewish Community (shtetl) in Eastern Europe. * "Jewish Youth That Was"- Jewish Youth Movements before the war*" Nazi Germany Oppresses Countries and Nations"*Ghettos and deportations. Concentration and Death Camps * "Warsaw Ghetto Fights Back" * The Ghetto Revolts-Vilna, Bialystok, Cracow, Czenstochow, Bendin-Sosnowitz* * Hungarian Jewry, 1919-1944 * Art of the Holocaust *"Auschwitz 5170 sculptures of Elsa Pollak. *Yitzhak Katzenelson--Poet and Holocaust Lamenter *Janusz Korczak-Jewish educator and humanitarian *"The Jews of Saloniki"- Before and after the Holocaust
ART
The Collection contains some 3,000 items :paintings, drawings, lithographs, prints, and sculptures. many of them were done in ghettos and concentration camps. The works have been collated into permanent and temporary exhibitions.
Holocaust & Resistance Remembrance Gathering:
Every year on Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Memorial Day, thousands of Isralis and guests from abroad come to participate in the assembly that takes place in the ampitheater near the Museum. The ceremony and presentation depict the theme:
"From Destruction to Redemption "
Teaching The Holocaust:
The main thrust of the Museum is educational-to convey the story of the Holocaust and Resistance to young people.
Study sessions at the Museum have become an integral part of Israeli High School Curriculum. Ghetto Fighters House organizes teacher seminars, encourages students to do research papers with staff assistance and provides teacher guidance.
The Education Department
- Staff of teacher-guides run workshops and study days for thousands of high-school students, soldiers and Ulpan participants.
- Conducts Seminars For Soldiers On Active Duty. teaching Soldiers Jewish and Zionist Identity and Human Dignity.
- The Zivia & Yitzhak Zuckerman Study Center The Study Center opened in January 1987 and since then has conducted weekly 3-day seminars for classes of student teachers, Israeli army, educational personnel and Adult Education Courses. The course is intensive 26 hours, (4 days) and the curriculum is a mix of lectures, films and workshops. The participants stay at the Center dormitory and take meals at the Center Dining Room. The course is available in English.
- Summer Course - Since summer of 1985 a special 3 week seminar is held for 45 teachers of the Holocaust from the United States
