Holocaust by Bullets: Yahad – In Unum, 10 Years of Investigation

Yahad – In Unum is a Paris-based organization dedicated to collecting testimonies of eyewitnesses, and identifying and documenting sites of mass crimes committed against Jews and Roma by the Germans and their collaborators during World War II in Eastern Europe. Stemming from the initiative of its founder and president, French Catholic priest Father Patrick Desbois, since 2004 the organization has identified over 1,400 execution sites and interviewed close to 4,000 eyewitnesses in 8 countries.

Father Desbois has spent his life researching the Holocaust, fighting antisemitism, and furthering relations between Catholics and Jews. The exhibition focuses on Father Desbois and Yahad – In Unum’s research in Eastern Europe.

Known as the “Holocaust by Bullets,” the majority of the systematic killing of Jews and Roma took place after the 1941 invasion of the former Soviet Union and continued until 1944. The form of genocide detailed by Yahad – In Unum’s exhibition is unlike any other study of genocidal activity ever conducted and presented.

In the exhibition, Yahad – In Unum presents its painstaking 10 years of research in a succinct yet appropriate manner allowing the visitor to uncover, step-by-step, the crime committed against Jews and Roma by the Nazi killing units, their Axis supporters, and local collaborators in Eastern Europe.

Mass killings in places such as Cambodia, Darfur, the Balkans and Syria are modeled after what Yahad’s founder Father Patrick Desbois calls the archetype of these horrors – those village-by-village, on site massacres – perpetrated by the Nazis and their collaborators.

On display at The FHM May 19 to July 19.

The Florida Holocaust Museum’s Curator of Education & Director of Research Urszula Szczepinska was invited by Yahad – In Unum to create a study guide to be used worldwide in conjunction with the exhibition. Click here to read the entire study guide, available online.