Yad Vashem is the Israeli institution, founded in 1953, that serves as a world center for documenting and commemorating the Holocaust.
Its full name is the World Holocaust Remembrance Center. Located in Jerusalem, it preserves survivor testimonies, historical documents, photographs, artifacts, and records about Jewish victims and rescuers. Its Hall of Names contains Pages of Testimony created to memorialize individual victims.
Yad Vashem also recognizes non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust with the title Righteous Among the Nations. The institution’s name combines the Hebrew words for “a memorial” and “a name,” echoing Isaiah 56:5.
Yad Vashem is sometimes confused with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., which opened in 1993. The two institutions have different locations and founding dates, although both are major Holocaust research and education centers.