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Visit to Yad Vashem in Jerusalem (30.03.2023)

On 30th of March 2023, Panos Poulos, a member of FILOXENIA, visited Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Centre in Jerusalem. Founded in 1953, it is the world's leading Holocaust memorial and education centre. Yad Vashem, which means "memorial and name" in Hebrew, is dedicated to preserving the memory of the six million Jews who got killed during the Nazi regime.

As well as commemorating the victims, the museum educates visitors about the historical context and the atrocities committed during this period. It also offers programmes for teachers, students and visitors to promote understanding, tolerance and the prevention of future genocides.

Yad Vashem's Righteous Among the Nations award honours non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. In 2018, this award was also given to Nikolaos Athanasoulis and Athanasios Dimopoulos, two former residents of Kryoneri who hid a Jewish family during the German occupation of Greece. Since then, the history of Greece and in particular of Kryoneri during the Second World War has been a major focus of FILOXENIA, which is based in the village.

During his stay at Yad Vashem, Panos also visited the Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations, where all the awarded individuals are commemorated on the Wall of Honour. After some searching, he also found the names of Nikolaos Athanasoulis and Athanasios Dimopoulos on the wall, as you can see on the picture below.