US Holocaust museum gives its highest honor to Syria rescue volunteers

Opposition-allied first responders known as the White Helmets to receive 2019 Elie Wiesel prize for ‘courageously saving lives and delivering critical services’

By Josefin Dolsten 16 April 2019, 10:28 am

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This picture taken in Kafr Ain on September 7, 2018, shows members of the Syrian Civil Defence, also known as the 'White Helmets,' carrying a victim after airstrikes, four kilometers east of Khan Shaykhun in the southern countryside of Idlib province (AFP PHOTO / Anas AL-DYAB)

JTA — The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is giving its highest honor to the Syria Civil Defense, a volunteer group that operates in rebel-controlled areas in Syria and Turkey.

The group, also known as the White Helmets, was founded in 2014 during the Syrian Civil War and provides aid and rescue to those affected by bombings in the country. Western countries view it as a humanitarian organization, but Russia, which supports Bashar Assad’s government, has described the group as a “threat.”

The group’s rescue efforts have demonstrated that Syria and its Russia-backed forces have targeted schools, hospitals and other civilian facilities. Both Moscow and Damascus have dismissed this, often feebly, as propaganda.

The museum, which is the country’s official Holocaust memorial and is located in Washington, DC, announced on Monday that it was giving the 2019 Elie Wiesel Award to two recipients: the Syria Civil Defense and Serge and Beate Klarsfeld, a couple known for their investigation into Nazi war criminals.

This Sunday, April 8, 2018 image released by the Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets, shows a rescue worker carrying a child following an alleged chemical weapons attack in the rebel-held town of Douma, near Damascus, Syria. (Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets via AP)

“At enormous risk to themselves and their families and in the face of horrific attacks by the Syrian government, the Syria Civil Defense have courageously saved lives and delivered critical services to a desperate population,” the announcement said about the White Helmets.