Holocaust memorial siren activated by survivor and her soldier granddaughter
Every Holocaust Remembrance Day, Israeli life stops to commemorate the six million Jews killed in the Nazi Holocaust with a national minute of silence.
Scenes of cars stopped in the middle of a highway with drivers standing in silence next to their vehicles are common as an air raid siren sounds.
Holocaust survivor Miriam Tafulkarair (right) with granddaughter, Sgt. Rui Avital, activate the air raid siren that marks Israel’s national minute of silence for six million Jews killed in the Holocaust on Holocaust Remembrance Day, on April 18, 2023. Photo by the IDF Spokesperson.
Monday’s minute of silence began with Holocaust survivor Miriam Tafulkarair together with her granddaughter, Sergeant Rui Avital, activating the national siren. Normally, the nationwide network of thousands of sirens warns the public to stay indoors.
Holocaust Remembrance Day, also known as Yom HaShoah, is the day Israel commemorates the six million Jews killed in the Nazi Holocaust. National ceremonies begin at sundown on Monday. Flags are lowered to half-mast. On Tuesday morning at 10:00, an air raid siren will go off and Israelis will observe two minutes of silence.
“As a Holocaust survivor, it is my duty to all the sons and daughters of my family, who were murdered in World War II, to tell the story of their heroism and the horrors they went through in the war; to convey the feelings of constant fear and persecution day and night and to cherish the feeling of freedom and security to live here, in our country, Land of Israel,” Tafulkarair said.
Tafulkarair was born in Amsterdam in 1945 and named after a Christian doctor who provided her family with a hiding place from the Nazis. Miriam’s father, Max, was a painter by profession and during the war forged identity cards and passports for Jews, as part of his activities in the Dutch underground.
When she turned 22, she moved to Israel where she met her husband, Haim Tafulkarair, who immigrated to Israel from Yemen in 1949.
Today, Haim and Miriam have five children, thirteen grandchildren and one great-grandson.
Sgt. Avital, who works in the Home Front Command, said, “In my role, I must always be alert, at any moment an operational incident can occur and there is no room for mistakes. We have a direct impact on saving citizens in the country. I am proud of my grandmother’s path, it is a great privilege for me to stand with Medi IDF and turn on the siren on Memorial Day with my grandmother.”
According to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, 147,199 Holocaust survivors currently live in Israel.
