The Bnei Brak Municipality has allocated land for the
construction of the Prager Center Museum -- Ginzach Kiddush
Hashem Archives.
This Center will include the following components: *
Permanent exhibits on Jewish spiritual heroism and
manifestations of kiddush Hashem throughout Jewish
history and particularly during the Holocaust, rescue work
and the subsequent revival of the Jewish nation; *
Photographs and reproductions of works of art on the Jewish
way of life in the past and present; * Catalogued
documents on the above topics; * A central library
with thousands of volumes pertaining to the Holocaust,
Jewish art and history, with reading halls; * A
permanent exhibit on the glorious Jewish past, both in the
East and West; * Rotating exhibits pertaining to the
traditional Jewish way of life; A Holocaust study and
teacher training center; * Halls for meetings,
seminars, and other such activities.
The project is being planned by Dr. Adi Gai, an Israeli
architect specializing primarily in public projects.
Background
Researcher and author Moshe Prager, o"h, founder of
"Ganzach Kiddush Hashem Archives -- Memorial Center for
Research and Documentation," lived in three worlds.
He saw European Jewry in its heyday, the time when millions
of its sons flourished where they and their predecessors had
sunk roots over a thousand years deep; He lived through and
witnessed the horrors of the Holocaust when European Jewry
was laid low and robbed of its magnificence; He lived to see
the rise of a magnificent new generation from the ashes of
the destruction.
Prager felt a keen sense of mission, to serve as a living
link uniting past, present and future generations, and to
preserve and transmit the glorious heritage of European
Jewry.
The Founder: His Life and Deeds
Mr. Prager, o"h, lost his wife and children in the
Holocaust. He subsequently devoted his entire life to the
research and commemoration of Jewish history, and especially
the brave persistence of the Jewish spirit during the
Holocaust.
Mr. Prager actually began his pioneering efforts with the
Nazi invasion of Poland. As a member of the American Joint
Jewish Distribution Committee, even before leaving Warsaw he
began to record testimony from people who had escaped to the
capital from border towns.
With his heart bleeding at the first terrible tidings coming
from Nazi-occupied lands, in September 1941 he published his
first book: Polish Jewry in the Grip of the Nazis.
During the war years he published many important research
papers in highly respected publications on the horrifying
Nazi extermination campaign. He was the first to publicize
the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in Israel.
After the war, Mr. Prager traveled to displaced persons
camps to personally meet with Holocaust survivors. He gave
encouragement to those ravished and downfallen Jews. Upon
his return to Israel, he published a series of articles in
Moznayim, a periodical of the Writer's
Association.
In 1948 he published his documentary book, The
Destruction of European Jewry. To this day the book
serves as a key to a deeper understanding of the Holocaust.
Dr. Nathan Eck, one of the major Holocaust historians,
writes about Prager, ". . . this fruit of the caring and
praiseworthy efforts of Mr. Moshe Prager. . . appeared when
the study of the Holocaust was still in diapers."
Over the years he wrote many books on the Holocaust as well
as additional subjects associated with Jewish history and
published hundreds of articles.
Having interviewed hundreds of Holocaust survivors, he
published the book: Sparks of Courage, whose main
theme is mutual assistance rendered under the most horrible
conditions. His documentary work titled, Those Who Did
Not Surrender, describing the history of Chassidic
resistance in the ghettos, is also the result of interviews
of survivors. These books have a wide readership in Hebrew
and were also translated into many languages.
On the basis of his reputation for Holocaust research, he
was asked by the editors of the Hebrew Encyclopedia
to compose the entry, "The Nazi Version of Antisemitism," an
exhaustive work of research describing how the Nazi movement
was established in order to implement antisemitism. In this
work he discloses the roots of the Nazi war on the Jews.
From his prolific pen came a series of books and pamphlets,
readable by young and old alike as well as also serving the
exacting needs of research. He documented the history of the
Vaad Hatzala, various aspects of the establishment of the
Jewish state, the miraculous rescues of the Gerrer and
Belzer rebbes, a record of Jewish cemeteries destroyed by
the Nazis, and many other subjects. Until his final days he
continued to look for newly uncovered archival materials.
In dozens of books published by prestigious publishing
houses; in hundreds of articles published in various
collections; in the wealth of manuscripts he left behind, he
describes the Nazi war against everything spiritual,
comparing the struggle to the victory of the spirit over the
material: the Jewish spirit that gave the Jewish nation the
strength to recover from the ashes of crematoria and
reestablish itself so quickly after the Holocaust.
The Goals
Ginzach Kiddush Hashem -- Memorial Center for Research and
Documentation was established by Mr. Prager in 1963 in order
to preserve the wealth of testimony on the spiritual bravery
of Jews during the Holocaust and on the miracle of the
rising of the Jewish nation from the ashes, as well as to
give the public access to these materials. Prager had
several clearly defined goals in mind, implementation of
which took up all his time and energy:
Goal A: To investigate, collect and record for
posterity all manifestations of Jewish spiritual heroism in
our generation. When the Nazi fiend contrived to annihilate
the nation that proclaimed belief in the A-mighty, he was
faced by a Jew unshaken in his faith, which he defended
against all odds and refused to repudiate under the most
trying circumstances. This was the same Jew who was
persecuted by bloodthirsty Arabs in the East and by
Communists in the Soviet Union; the Jew whose spiritual
survival under these circumstances serves as irrefutable,
convincing evidence that all Jews are one Nation whose
spiritual heritage is indestructible.
Goal B: To salvage all forms of recorded
documentation manifesting the unique image of the Jew
throughout history as well as the entire spectrum of
lifestyles of the Jewish world that is no more. This goal is
twofold: to commemorate the Jewish nation's glory and to
foster efforts to build the life of the Jewish Nation on the
foundations of the Jewish heritage.
Goal C: Founding a museum to combine the first two
goals. Its exhibits will illustrate manifestations of Jewish
spiritual heroism under the Nazi occupation, the mutual
assistance extended under the most trying circumstances and
the brave resistance to the suppression of the spirit under
the most horrendous conditions in recorded history. The new
generation, new immigrants and tourists from the entire
world will be the beneficiaries. The museum will serve as a
means for educating the younger generation by bringing it
closer to its glorious past and imbuing youth with true
Jewish pride.
To attain his goals, Prager started collecting documents and
photographs from many sources. He traveled extensively
abroad, searching through numerous public as well as private
archives, an enterprise requiring unlimited patience and
effort.
In commemoration of his efforts, the Ginzach Kiddush Hashem
administration has decided to rename the museum in memory of
its founder. It will now be known as "The Prager Center."
Museum Activities
Exhibitions of the Jewish past on the Holocaust, heroism and
revival of the Jewish nation among young people both in
Israel and abroad and in many educational institutions are
arranged. As part of this activity, the Museum invites young
people to lectures accompanied by audiovisual presentations.
Lecturers are also sent to educational institutions and
immigrant absorption centers.
During the past several years, the Ganzach has become the
principal address for those seeking documentation on the
Holocaust and the Jewish past. Daily the Museum receives
visitors from numerous writers and researchers, journalists
and teachers, painters and artists, lecturers, publishers,
who utilize the clearly catalogued documentation and book
collection numbering in the thousands of books and
albums.
Seminars for teachers' training seminary students are run
periodically on manifestations of Jewish heroism during the
Holocaust.
The Museum staff is currently computerizing all its
holdings. When this work is completed, it will permit
maximal utilization of all information at the Museum's
disposal.
A state-of-the-art computer will eventually allow
presentation of an exhibit on many subjects by simply
pushing a button, thus expanding the assistance provided to
educational institutions and to the many researchers
frequenting the Prager Center.
The Center also supplies documentation and photographs, and
veteran readers of Yated will have noted that many of
the illustrations of articles are credited to Ginzach
Kiddush Hashem.
