Dear Friend,

I hope you had the chance to watch the video my young friend Danielle recently shared with you about my doll, Marlene.

I donated Marlene to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum because I want her to be preserved forever in memory of all children whose lives were destroyed by the Holocaust.

Artifacts like my doll give proof to the world that the Holocaust happened. The Museum is in a race against time to acquire evidence in more than 40 countries.

Your gift will support this effort and help the Museum educate more young people like my friend Danielle through artifacts and the powerful stories associated with them.

Thank you for making a generous year-end donation today. When we survivors are no longer here to tell our stories, these items will be the only authentic evidence that can help combat rising Holocaust denial and antisemitism.

Thank you,

Inge Auerbacher
Holocaust Survivor

P.S. My doll, Marlene, was my constant companion when I was at the Terezin concentration camp. After my parents, Marlene was what I was most afraid of losing. Since I donated her to the Museum, I no longer have to worry about Marlene being lost. Please help the Museum preserve this important history.

Photo: Inge Auerbacher with her doll, which she donated to the Museum.
US Holocaust Memorial Museum

Syrian Commission for Transitional Justice Visits Bosnia and Herzegovina Click here to read the release The Syrian Commission for Transitional Justice (SCTJ) in cooperation with the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) organized a study visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina, which ran between December 1 and 6, 2014. The SCTJ delegation included the Syrian Interim Government’s Minister for Justice, a member of the legal bureau of the Syrian National Coalition, in addition to a number of Syrian judges, lawyers, and representatives of Syrian NGOs involved in the documentation of human rights violations. The aim of the visit was to learn about the Bosnian experience in addressing the issue of missing persons in the aftermath of the Bosnian war 1992-1995. This visit is a part of the Syrian Commission for Transitional Justice’s endeavors to contribute to the capacity building of legal and judiciary professionals, in the context of its work on programs of enforced disappearance, and in light of its work establishing the Syrian Special Court. The delegation visited ICMP’s DNA laboratories, which work to match the DNA of the families of missing persons with the skeletal remains of anonymous victims exhumed from mass graves. Through such work, it has been possible to identify more than 17,700 missing persons. To learn about the process, the delegation was able to tour the ICMP’s premises in Sarajevo and Tuzla. The delegation also visited the Potocari Memorial Center in Srebrenica, and met representatives of local societies for the families of victims. The delegation met a representative of the Missing Persons Institute which, on behalf of the government, is responsible for affairs concerning missing persons, and also met speakers from the Croatian Office of Detained and Missing Persons, which worked on DNA matching and identification prior to the establishment of the ICMP. The delegation also had the opportunity to meet representatives of civil society institutions involved in peace building. All speakers stressed the importance of building a legislative and institutional system, as well as establishing a comprehensive national vision concerning missing persons’ affairs, before the commencement of field work. SCTJ also made a brief presentation on the latest developments in its electronic system for the documentation of human rights violations in Syria. This system was built as a comprehensive central database for all human rights violations, and works in coordination with Syrian organizations currently documenting such abuses. The delegation from the Syrian Commission for Transitional Justice included representatives of the Free Independent Judicial Council, the Free Lawyers Union, the Free Lawyers Gathering, the Syrian Network for Human Rights, in addition to a number of independent judges, allowing the knowledge and expertise of different groups and organizations to be shared and disseminated.