To effectively respond to these inquiries, a special unit was established, comprised almost completely of Holocaust survivors – the unit for investigating Nazi crimes in the Israel Police. Many of the unit members had lost their families in the Holocaust themselves. It took long hours of detailed legal work that would eventually lead to proper legal procedures through which it would be possible to bring the perpetrators to justice. Despite the significant and unique contributions of these Holocaust survivors, to date no research has documented their important work.
Students from different and diverse backgrounds, Jews, Druze, Bedouin, Muslim and Christian Arabs, whstudy together in the Holocaust Studies program at Tel-Hai College, will take part in the Alfred Landecker Foundation funded research project that will deal with the unit’s contribution to Holocaust studies. The rationale for this comes from the desire to create a multi-cultural dialogue that will lead to one of the overarching goals of the project: acceptance of the “other". The selected students will go through a process that includes seminars at Holocaust museums, participation in courses that deal with different aspects of the Holocaust and genocide as well as dealing with different arenas of current crises (such as the Arab-Israeli conflict). Furthermore, the organization of and participation in the annual international conference discussing the events of the past as an educational tool to create a better present and future will be part of this project.