Ghetto Fighters' House
Encyclopedia
The Ghetto Fighters' House , full name, Itzhak Katzenelson Holocaust and Jewish Resistance Heritage Museum and Study Center, was founded in 1949 by members of Kibbutz
Lohamei Hagetaot
, a community of Holocaust survivors, among them fighters of the ghetto
undergrounds and partisan units. The museum is name after Itzhak Katzenelson, a Jewish poet who died at Auschwitz.
The museum is located in the Western Galilee, Israel
, on the Coastal Highway
between Acre (Akko)
and Nahariya
.
The Ghetto Fighters' House is the world’s first museum commemorating the Holocaust
and Jewish heroism. It represents the highest expression of its founders’ commitment to Holocaust education in Israel and the world. The museum tells the story of the Jewish people in the 20th century, and particularly during World War II
and the Holocaust. At the center of the narrative is the individual, and the many expressions of Jewish resistance in ghettos, concentration camps, and partisan combat.
"Friends of GFH" associations are active in Israel, France
, Austria
, and the USA.
Kibbutz
A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism...
Lohamei Hagetaot
Lohamey ha-Geta'ot
Lohamei HaGeta'ot is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Located in the western Galilee, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Asher Regional Council. In 2006 it had a population of 467.-History:...
, a community of Holocaust survivors, among them fighters of the ghetto
Ghetto
A ghetto is a section of a city predominantly occupied by a group who live there, especially because of social, economic, or legal issues.The term was originally used in Venice to describe the area where Jews were compelled to live. The term now refers to an overcrowded urban area often associated...
undergrounds and partisan units. The museum is name after Itzhak Katzenelson, a Jewish poet who died at Auschwitz.
The museum is located in the Western Galilee, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, on the Coastal Highway
Highway 4 (Israel)
Highway 4 is an Israeli highway that runs along Israel's entire coastal plain of the Mediterranean Sea, its route in the north runs from the Rosh HaNikra border crossing with Lebanon until the Erez Border Crossing with the Gaza Strip...
between Acre (Akko)
Acre, Israel
Acre , is a city in the Western Galilee region of northern Israel at the northern extremity of Haifa Bay. Acre is one of the oldest continuously inhabited sites in the country....
and Nahariya
Nahariya
Nahariya is the northernmost coastal city in Israel, with an estimated population of 51,200.-History:Nahariya was founded by German Jewish immigrants from the Fifth Aliyah in the 1930s...
.
The Ghetto Fighters' House is the world’s first museum commemorating the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
and Jewish heroism. It represents the highest expression of its founders’ commitment to Holocaust education in Israel and the world. The museum tells the story of the Jewish people in the 20th century, and particularly during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and the Holocaust. At the center of the narrative is the individual, and the many expressions of Jewish resistance in ghettos, concentration camps, and partisan combat.
"Friends of GFH" associations are active in Israel, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, and the USA.
Departments and activities
- Museum exhibitions
- Guided tours (for groups in HebrewHebrew languageHebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
and other languages) - The ZiviaZivia LubetkinZivia Lubetkin was one of the leaders of the Jewish underground in Nazi-occupied Warsaw and the only woman on the High Command of the resistance group Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa .-Pre-World War II:...
and Yitzhak “Antek” ZuckermanIcchak CukiermanIcchak Cukierman , also known by his nom de guerre "Antek", or by the anglicised spelling Yitzhak Zuckerman, was one of the leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising during World War II.Cukierman was born in Vilnius, Lithuania into a Jewish family...
Study Center (facility for one-, two-, and three-day seminars) - The Yad LaYeled Children’s Museum, telling the story of children during the Holocaust to the children of our day
- The International Book-Sharing Project, using children's books about the Holocaust to foster dialogue and understanding
- The Center for Humanistic Education
- Archives (documents, photographs, artifacts, art collection, recordings, and more)
- Library and Reference Room (resources and assistance for researchers, educators, and students)
- Department of Research on the Holocaust of Soviet JewryHistory of the Jews in Russia and the Soviet UnionThe vast territories of the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest populations of Jews in the diaspora. Within these territories the Jewish community flourished and developed many of modern Judaism's most distinctive theological and cultural traditions, while also facing periods of...
- Publications Department