Governor Mario Cuomo paid tribute to “the valor of those who resisted the Nazis against impossible odds” and to those “engaged in the sacred task of Remembrance,” as he accepted the post of honorary chairman of the New York State Society for Yad Vashem in a recent meeting here.
The Governor said that without Remembrance “the follies and tragedies of history are in danger of being repeated.” He lauded the accomplishments of those survivors “who came to this country with their bare hands but strong hearts and minds to help build a better American society.”
Cuomo was presented with a replica of the plans by Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust and Remembrance Authority, to build “The Valley of the Destroyed Communities” on eight acres of land at Yad Vashem as a memorial to the 5,000 communities destroyed by the Nazis when they overran 22 countries in Europe.
Martin Heinfling, chairman of the New York State Society, who made the presentation, said his organization has set a goal of over $1 million in support of the work of Yad Vashem in Israel to be raised over the next few years. Some of the funds to be raised. he said, are to be used in the restoration and microfilming of some 50 million documents and clippings which expose the diabolical goals of the Nazis. The New York State Society for Yad Vashem is an affiliate of the American Society for Yad Vashem.
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