APRIL 12, 2023 — In observance of Days of Remembrance, the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute (DEOMI) proudly announces the availability of original artwork available for download from DEOMI’s public website, www.defenseculture.mil.
Days of Remembrance, an annual week-long commemoration of the Holocaust, will be observed April 16-23, 2023, and include Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah) observed on April 18.
The Department of Defense’s theme for this year’s observance is “Behind Every Name A Story: The Women.” The poster highlights the bravery of Irena Sendler, a Polish social worker who, during World War II, helped rescue 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto.
She did this by giving Jewish children non-Jewish names and then placing them with local Polish families or in convents or orphanages for safety.
To protect their identity, the children’s real names, along with their new names, were written on pieces of paper and placed in glass jars.
The jars were buried in a garden underneath a tree across from a German barracks.
After the war the lists enabled the children to be returned to Jewish relatives. Tragically, most of their parents did not survive.
On October 20, 1943, the Nazis arrested Sendler and sent her to Pawiak Prison. There they tortured her, trying to get her to reveal the names of her associates.
She refused and was sentenced to death. However, members of Żegota, an underground Polish resistance organization, bribed the prison guards and Sendler was released in February 1944.
In 1965, Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial organization, named Sendler as Righteous Among the Nations for her work saving Jewish children. In 2003, Poland honored her with its Order of the White Eagle.
All DEOMI poster files are in the public domain. All DEOMI special observance poster images are high resolution and may be used to print posters up to 30 x 40 inches. DEOMI does not print posters or mail them out to requestors.
Users, however, must credit the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute when using them.
In addition, please check out our website for a wide variety of new products we have prepared to help our Equal Opportunity/Equal Employment Opportunity and Command Climate Professionals in the Field, Fleet, Wing and Agency. DEOMI develops and delivers innovative education, training, research, and collaborative solutions to optimize total force readiness. For more details, contact DEOMI Public Affairs Office: 366 Tuskegee Airmen Dr., Patrick SFB, FL 32925, Email: deomipa@us.af.mil.
The posters may not be used in any manner that would reflect negatively on the DoD; degrade the name, reputation, or public goodwill of the DoD Components; or be contrary to DoD community relations objectives. Furthermore, use by non-federal entities may not create the appearance of DoD endorsement, affiliation, or sponsorship.
Story by Sgt. 1st Class Lance Pounds
Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute