Dortmund soccer club donates $1.1 million to Yad Vashem

DORTMUND, Germany — Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund is donating 1 million euros ($1.12 million) toward the expansion of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Israel.

Dortmund managing director Carsten Cramer says the money will help make “a lasting commitment to the memory of the Holocaust” and fight modern anti-Semitism.

German companies Daimler, Deutsche Bahn, Deutsche Bank and Volkswagen were also making the same donation, with the money going toward a new building at Yad Vashem known as the “Shoah heritage campus,” providing additional space for storage, research and restoration.

“The Nazis did not only try to murder the Jews, but also to erase their identity, their memory, their culture and their heritage,” Yad Vashem chairman Avner Shalev said.

Illustrative: Fans at the Dortmund soccer stadium during a match. (CC BY Pascal Philp/Wikipedia)

“For many, the only objects that remained were works of art, personal items, photographs, and documents preserved under the most difficult of circumstances and deposited with Yad Vashem.”

Dortmund chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke said, “Future generations should know the suffering that has been inflicted on people by other human beings. We are committed to international understanding, tolerance and peaceful coexistence.”