‘Memory that makes us grow’: Israel remembers the 6 million Jews murdered during the Holocaust
The State of Israel marked the beginning of Yom HaShoah, its national Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day, on Wednesday night with an official ceremony at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem in memory of six million Jewish men, women, and children murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators.
Preisdent Herzog at Yad Vashem
The ceremony included remarks by Israel’s President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. Yad Vashem Council Chairman and Holocaust survivor Rabbi Israel Meir Lau kindled the Memorial Torch.
During the ceremony, six torches were lit in memory of the six million Holocaust victims, and the stories of the six Holocaust survivors who lit them were presented in short videos. Shmuel Blumenfeld, Rebecca Elizur, Zvi Gill, Olga Kay, Arie Shilansky, and Shaul Shpielmann lit the torches.
The ceremony featured a traditional memorial service, including the recitation of a chapter from Psalms by Chief Rabbi of Israel Rabbi David Lau. The Rishon LeZion, Chief Rabbi of Israel Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef recited the Kaddish mourner’s prayer, and a cantor recited the El Maleh Rahamim, the Jewish prayer for the souls of the martyrs.
Speaking at the ceremony, President Isaac Herzog said that “the Jewish response to history is the injunction: Remember! Memory not only of sterile science, nor of archival documents, but first of all, fundamentally: profound, existential memory, which gives history its meaning. Memory of the sort that is reflected in every walk of life, that makes us grow, that builds us as a nation, that makes us better, more worthy.”
He further declared that “casting doubt on Israel’s right to exist is not legitimate diplomacy but pure anti-Semitism, which must be uprooted. We must continue fighting against ugly expressions of anti-Semitism, which is returning to rear its head in many places in the world, including on social media.”
“And we must make clear that even today, eight decades after the darkest abyss in the annals of human history, the anti-Semitism threatening our people is a crime against humanity,” he added.
The sombre day’s theme is ” Transports to Extinction: The Deportation of the Jews during the Holocaust,” the meticulously organized operation that was an event of historic significance, obliterating Jewish communities throughout German-occupied territory that had existed for centuries.
At 10 o’clock on Thursday, the entire country came to a standstill and maintained two minutes of silence as sirens were sounded in memory of the Holocaust victims.
The traditional wreath-laying ceremony took place in the Warsaw Ghetto Square at the base of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Monument.
praise god we should always remember.so it doesn’t happen again.