Picture of a mass grave: Execution site of Jewish refugees in Ladozhskaya, Krasnodar region, Russia © Markel Redondo/Yahad-In Unum. yom hashoah » Father Patrick Desbois, author of Holocaust By Bullets and founder/ president of Yahad- In Unum Documenting Mass Murder Priest works to identify unknown Holocaust gravesites. Judy Greenwald | Contributing Writer T here’s been much written about the Holocaust — and very rightly so. We’re painfully familiar with the knowledge that 6 million Jews and over- whelming numbers of others perished in Nazi death camps. But for those millions of innocents executed in cities, small villages, even their own neighborhoods, there was little or no documentation of the sites where such hor- rors took place. Since 2001, it’s been the mission of French priest Father Patrick Desbois to identify and memorialize these sites before they are lost to time. Desbois, born in 1955 in Chalon-sur- Saone, holds a degree in mathematics from the Universite de Dijon and earned a mas- ter’s in theology from the Catholic University of Lyon. He was ordained in 1986 and has worked as a teacher in Africa, assisted Mother Teresa in Calcutta, served as supe- rior of the Grand Seminary of Prado in Lyon, and was secretary of Jewish Relations for French Cardinals Decourtray, Jean Balland and Louis-Marie Bille. He has been recog- nized with honorary doctorates from such institutions as Bar-Ilan University, New York University, the University of Winnipeg and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. He now serves as director of the Episcopal Committee for Catholic-Jewish Relations under the auspices of the French Conference of Bishops. He also acts as adviser to the Vatican on the Jewish religion and, since 2015, has been adjunct professor at the Program for Jewish Civilization in Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh 40 May 5 • 2016 School of Foreign Service. Desbois has dedicated his life to research- ing the Holocaust and, in 2004, he founded Yahad-In Unum (“together” in Hebrew and Latin), a global humanitarian organization based in Paris that works to both further Catholic-Jewish relations and locate and commemorate the sites of Jewish as well as Roma (“gypsy”) mass executions. For this important work documenting the Holocaust, Desbois was awarded the Legion of Honor, France’s highest honor, in 2008. In that same year, Desbois wrote Holocaust By Bullets, which details his accounts of dis- covering the gravesites of Jewish victims exe- cuted in the Ukraine by the Einsatzgruppen, the Nazi mobile death squads. The book garnered the Jewish Book Council’s 2008 National Jewish Book Award. His story was also a featured segment — “The Hidden Holocaust” — on CBS’s 60 Minutes, which aired in 2015, and told with heart-wrenching detail of his years of work interviewing wit- nesses, poring over countless documents and painstakingly investigating and discovering thousands of killing sites of Jews and Romas. The grandson of a WWII French sol- dier held as a prisoner in the Rawa-Ruska labor camp on the Poland-Ukraine border, Desbois explained his motivation in under- taking this overwhelming and difficult task. “My grandfather was a witness to the shootings of the Jews and Romas,” Desbois explained. “But he never wanted to talk about it. I think, through my grandfather, God called me to build Yahad-In Unum, together with Marco Gonzalez [YIU’s direc- tor]. I work to bring proof of these assassina- tions to the world so history does not die with the witnesses.” Desbois’ interest in the Holocaust led to his studying about anti-Semitism at Yad Vashem and also learning about Jewish religion and culture from a leader of France’s Jewish community. According to Bob Aronson, senior development adviser at the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, who has worked with Desbois for the past year and a half, Desbois’ being a priest helped those he found and questioned be more forthcoming in their accounts. Aronson noted that people of many differ- ent backgrounds make up the forensic team that travels with Desbois to locate these sites and interview the ever-dwindling number of eyewitnesses to these murders. “Time is running out for the father,” Aronson noted. “The people who remember, who can take him and his team to these sites, are dying off. It’s an honor for me to work with Father Desbois. Through his dedication, he’s identifying the victims of these shootings, who have no survivors. He’s giving the Jewish people a chance to say Kaddish for them.” Andrew Echt, COO of Arbor Investments, spent time working with Father Desbois and his team during several of their past visits to Detroit. “I felt compelled to assist Yahad’s efforts in building awareness and support for this historically important and noble cause,” Echt explained. “Father Desbois stands as one of the righteous among the nations, and we have the opportunity to ensure that his mis- sion — which is our mission — is fulfilled.” Desbois’ passion for historical education is continuing. He has written a book about ISIS as a terrorist industry and noted a second book about the Holocaust is in the works. “The assassins never imagined that 70 years later, men and women motivated by a quest for the truth would interview eyewit- nesses to the killings of Jews and Romas,” he said. “To all those who commit genocide we say: Sooner or later, wherever mass murder of humans has taken place, someone will return.” An important aspect of Desbois’ and YIU’s educational task is the “Holocaust By Bullets” exhibit, showcasing their revelation of the process of Eastern European Jewish genocide, which has been presented in Paris, New York, Los Angeles, Canada, Madrid, Lithuania and recently in Guatemala. It will be in Michigan this June. “All faiths must act together to improve the world,” Desbois concluded. “New gen- erations are waiting for action!” “I am moved by the work Father Desbois is doing to expose those murdered in the Holocaust, not in camps or ghettos, but by bullets,” said Robin Axelrod, Holocaust Memorial Center’s director of education. “He’s showing the world a largely unknown chapter of the Holocaust in order to identify those who perished and make us recognize and denounce the ongoing epi- demic of global genocide. We must learn the dangers of unrivaled hatred and make the The “Holocaust By Bullets” exhibit will be at the Holocaust Memorial Center Zekelman Family Campus in Farmington Hills June 5 through December. Call (248) 553-2400 or visit info@holocaustcenter.org for details.