Steps to the Holocaust

Dr. Kokkonen, originally from Finland, is the Director of Christian Friends of Yad Vashem. In her position, she travels extensively around the world to speak about Israel, the Holocaust, anti-Semitism and the Middle East. She was the featured guest speaker at the official Holocaust Memorial Day 2009 organized by the First Minister of Northern Ireland. Fluent in six languages, she writes regularly on Jewish and Israeli issues. Dr. Kokkonen has developed a program of enrolling Christians from around the world as Friends of Yad Vashem. The program brings clergy and educators to Holocaust education seminars so as to enable them to educate their own communities.
Until April 2008 she was the Political Director of various pro-Israel lobbies at the European Parliament in Brussels. She has also served as a Cultural Attaché at the Embassy of Finland in Israel. In 2004, she received her Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Holocaust studies. Her dissertation topic was “Jewish Refugees in Post-War Italy, 1945-1951.”