UNDENIED: Holocaust Memorial and Awareness Project by Students Supporting Israel
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WITH THE ALARMING RAISE IN HOLOCAUST DENIAL IN THE UNITED STATES, INCLUDING ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES, this project was created by SSI’s founders in loving memory of their family members, Isaac Estis, a Jewish soldier during WWII, his wife Lia, who raised two Jewish kids alone during evacuation and starvation, and Leonid Ostrovsky, who was among the only 9 surviving of the 300 revolted escaping the Babi Yar massacre.
THEIR STORIES CANNOT BE DENIED. In memory of all the relatives, grandparents, mothers, fathers, siblings, friends, and communities whose names are remembered in places such as Yad Vashem, but there are no living remained to remember them but us, through our duty to preserve their stories, as with each passing year there are less and less survivors and witnesses who can do it. These stories, the history of the Holocaust, cannot be denied. WE WILL NOT LET THIS HAPPEN. The “UNDENIED” project is a unique Holocaust memorial and awareness initiative where during International Holocaust Remembrance Day Students Supporting Israel chapters and activists hand out free books on the Holocaust on college campuses across North America. |
OUR GOAL IS TO GIVE AWAY AT LEAST 1,000 BOOKS EACH YEAR.
FIVE TITLES ARE CHOSEN ANNUALLY, each discusses a different aspect of the Holocaust.
FIVE TITLES ARE CHOSEN ANNUALLY, each discusses a different aspect of the Holocaust.
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Titles 2018-2019
Titles 2018/2019 Focus area: Personal accounts from the Holocaust 1. If This Is Man by Primo Levi 2. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl 3. Night by Elie Wiesel 4. The Jewish Dog by Asher Kravitz 5. The English German Girl: A Novel by Jake Wallis Simons Titles 2019-2020
Titles 2019/2020 Focus area: Holocaust of Jews in Soviet Union region 1. The Bielski Brothers by Peter Duffy 2. The Holocaust by Bullets by Father Desbois 3. In Broad Daylight by Father Desbois 4. Through Soviet-Jewish Eyes by David Shneer 5. Anatomy of Genocide by Omer Bartov Titles 2020-2021
Titles 2020/2021 Focus area: Children in the Holocaust 1. The Children's Block by Otto Kraus 2. Survivors by Allan Zullo 3. We Are Witnesses by Jacob Boas 4. I have Lived a Thousand Years by Livia Bitton-Jackson 5. Four Perfect Pebbles by Lila Perl Titles 2021-2022
Titles 2021/2022 Focus area: Righteous Among the Nations 1. Irena's Children by Tillar Mazzeo 2. Oscar Schindler by Anna Revell 3. In My Hands by Irene Gut Opdyke 4. The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom 5. The Fantastic Laboratory of Dr. Weigl by Arthur Alan Titles 2022-2023
Titles 2022/2023 Focus area: Jewish Resistance 1. The Jewish Resistance: Uprisings Against the Nazis in WWII by Paul Roland 2. Beyond Courage: The Untold Story of Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust by Doreen Rappaport 3.The Bravest Battle: The Twenty-eight Days of The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising by Dan Kurzman 4. The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler's Ghettos by Judy Batalion 5. Fugitives of the Forest: The Heroic Story Of Jewish Resistance And Survival During The Second World War by Allan Levine |
Why Books? And Why Campuses?
WHY BOOKS? AND WHY CAMPUSES? In 1933, student groups at universities across Germany carried out a series of book burnings. Handing out books at universities is a symbolic act to show we are acting upon our commitment that this will not happen again. The burned books were part of the beginning of the denial of the people process, and we will not let a denial process to happen in our times. WHY GIVE THEM FOR FREE?
WHY GIVE THEM FOR FREE? We agree with Elie Wiesel’s words, “the books I have read were composed by generations of fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, teachers and disciples,” and that, “to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.” When leisure reading is at all-time low it is questionable whether someone would spend money on purchasing a book, let alone about the Holocaust. We believe every story of the Holocaust deserves to be heard, and financial stress should not be an influential factor on this matter. WHO WILL GET THE BOOKS
WHO WILL GET THE BOOKS? With SSI being a non-Jewish organization, our target audience for this project, as for all other projects, is not limited to the Jewish community, but is in fact MOSTLY targeting the non-Jewish students who are less familiar with the history of the Holocaust - many of whom this may be the first encounter with a long text on the subject matter. WHY THIS PROJECT WILL SUCCEED
WHY THIS PROJECT WILL SUCCEED... SSI has an established wide network of chapter and individual activists on dozens of North American campuses. Our network will be utilized to channel the books and hand them out on campuses while tracking progress. This is a direct expansion of SSI’s “Knowledge is Power” campaign, that for the past two years has placed hundreds of free Zionist-related books in the hands of college students. HOW COSTS ARE KEPT LOW
HOW COSTS ARE KEPT LOW
We try our best not to purchase new books, but to redistribute the gently used books that are currently collecting dusts at thrift stores or private people’s homes into the hands of our students. We have already contacted thrift stores and are asking for individuals who would be willing to donate any of the titles above unused, or in good condition, to be given to students to please contact us for mailing information. |
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INDIVIDUAL DONORS:
•We would be honored to recognize any donation of at least $100, which is 10 books or more, with your name on the project’s sponsor’s list.
•in addition to monetary support, if you own an unused copy of the above titles please consider donating it to SSI for redistribution on campuses.
ORGANIZATIONAL / CORPORATE SPONSORS, PUBLISHERS:
•for any level of donation above $250 your logo will be included.
•for any donation of $250, which is 25 books or more, we will recognize you as a bronze level sponsor of the project.
•for any donation of $500, which is 50 books or more, we will recognize you as a silver level sponsor of the project.
•for any donation of $1,000, which is 100 books or more, we will recognize you as a gold level sponsor of the project.
•We would be honored to recognize any donation of at least $100, which is 10 books or more, with your name on the project’s sponsor’s list.
•in addition to monetary support, if you own an unused copy of the above titles please consider donating it to SSI for redistribution on campuses.
ORGANIZATIONAL / CORPORATE SPONSORS, PUBLISHERS:
•for any level of donation above $250 your logo will be included.
•for any donation of $250, which is 25 books or more, we will recognize you as a bronze level sponsor of the project.
•for any donation of $500, which is 50 books or more, we will recognize you as a silver level sponsor of the project.
•for any donation of $1,000, which is 100 books or more, we will recognize you as a gold level sponsor of the project.
This project is created in loving memory of two Jewish men who resisted the Nazis with their fighting spirit, and whose undenied stories we got to hear as first hand witnesses:
Leonid Ostrovsky
In 1943 on the night of September 29, three hundred Prisoners of War revolted and tried to escape Babi Yar. Out of the 300, only 18 survived and out of the 18 only 9 stayed alive after the war, one of them was Leonid Ostrovsky. This project is in his memory, and the memory of the Jews and others murdered in Babi Yar, HYD. The Babi Yar ravine in Kiev is the site of some of the worst massacres of World War II. The first and largest was carried out in September 1941 over a two-day period during which German forces executed 33,771 Jews. Over 100,000 more Jews, Romanis, Ukrainians, and Soviet prisoners of war were murdered throughout the next two years until the Soviets retook Kiev on November 6, 1943. On September 29th 1941 German forced captured the city of Kiev. All of the Jews in the city got a message to take their valuables and to come to the central station or they will be killed in their homes. 12 members of Leonid's family were murdered in Babi Yar, and today their names are remembered at Yad Vashem, from elderly to the youngest one Sarah that was one year old. "In liberated Kiev, Jewish prisoners of war held in a prison camp across the road. From left to right: Efim Vilkis, 33, Leonid Ostrovsky, 31, and Vladimir Davidoff, 28. (Photo by A. Ioselevich / No. 8718, Siberia Photo Service)"* Read more: https://www.billdownscbs.com/2013/07/blood-at-babii-yar-kievs-atrocity-story.html |
Isaac Estis Isaac was born in a small town near Kiev. His parents were murdered in a pogrom when he was a child and he was raised by his two older sisters. He married Lia, but soon after the wedding he joined the Red Army to fight against Nazi Germany. Lia bravely raised their two sons while waiting for Isaac to come back from the war. Approximately 1.5 million Jews fought in the regular Allied armies. In many cases the percentage of Jews fighting was greater than the percentage of Jews in the population. About 500,000 Jewish soldiers fought in the Red Army during World War II. Some 120,000 were killed in combat and in the line of duty; the Germans murdered 80,000 as prisoners of war. More than 160,000, at all levels of command, earned citations, with over 150 designated “Heroes of the Soviet Union”— the highest honor awarded to soldiers in the Red Army. Approximately 550,000 Jewish soldiers fought in the US Armed Forces during World War II. They served on all fronts in Europe and in the Pacific. Some 10,000 were killed in combat, and more than 36,000 received citations. Many Jewish soldiers took part in liberating the camps. Approximately 100,000 Jews fought in the Polish army against the German invasion. They made up 10% of the Polish army, commensurate with the percentage of Jews within the general population. Approximately 30,000 Jews fell in battle, were taken captive by the Germans, or declared missing during the battles defending Poland, 11,000 in the defense of Warsaw. Thousands of Jews later served in various Polish armies fighting against the Germans in the Allied Forces. About 30,000 Jews served in the British army in 1939-1946, some in special units of Jews from Palestine, such as the Jewish Brigade. |