Israel came to a standstill for two mournful minutes Monday as sirens pierced the air in an annual ritual to remember the 6 million Jews systematically murdered by German Nazis and their collaborators during the Holocaust in WWII.
Commemorations were being held around the country as Israel marked its annual Holocaust memorial day. The main wreath laying ceremony took place at the Yad Vashem memorial in Jerusalem. Visiting U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Israelis Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres were among officials and Holocaust survivors in attendance.
“I am the only one who stayed alive, survived from all my family, about 100 people,” said Zvi Shofet, a Holocaust survivor who participated in the ceremony.
When the sirens went off at 10 a.m., Israelis stopped what they were doing and stood in silence with their heads bowed. Traffic froze as drivers stopped their cars and stepped outside in a sign of respect.
International Holocaust Remembrance Day is marked worldwide on Jan. 27, the date of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp. Israel’s annual Holocaust memorial day coincides with the Hebrew date of the Warsaw ghetto uprising.
This year’s commemoration marked the 70-year anniversary of the ghetto uprising, a symbol of Jewish resistance against the Nazis in World War II that resonates deeply in Israel to this day.
The 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising was the first large-scale rebellion against the Nazis in Europe and the single greatest act of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust. Though guaranteed to fail, it became a symbol of struggle against impossible conditions and inspired other acts of uprising and underground resistance.
Holocaust memorial day is one of the most solemn on Israel’s calendar. Restaurants, cafes and places of entertainment are shut down, and radio and TV programming are dedicated almost exclusively to documentaries about the Holocaust, interviews with survivors and somber music.
(AP)
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10 Responses
Very meaningful and it’s very important for Jewish People/ Nation to know what we went through, but Halacha/ the Torah says we don’t mourn during the month of Nissan. Holocaust Memorial Day is during the month of (Tisha b’Av specifically) when we mourn the destruction of the Beis HaMikdosh, but not during Nissan. The Halacha is mandated by the Torah, NOT human emotions.
Be thankful for our families, friends and all those who are there for us. After listening this morning to JM in the AM, all survivors mourned the “LOSS OF FAMILY & FRIENDS”.
Are we appreciating our family and friends? Sure is a lesson to me.
Ironic that of the 3 aforementioned politicians, 2 have or plan on causing more Jewish bloodshed. I refer of course to Shimon Peres, architect of the Oslo accords, which have caused the deaths of thousands of Jews, and to Secretary of State Kerry, who is in Israel on a mission to bring more withdrawals and concessions to the Arabs which will further endanger Jewish lives!
May I suggest that all Jews do several things to remember
1) More Talmud Torah.
2) More davvening.
3) More deeds of kindness.
4) Be very, very, very, careful of all goy —including me.
Shalom,
a Goy, Gerry Mullen
Let’s start teaching our children and Bochurom, that all of mankind, adults and children, Yiddishe and Non-Yiddishe, are precious in the eyes of our Creator, Heshem Yisborach.
Halevai, that our children should see, that we worry about the well-being of every person and we make an effort, not to exclude any person, from our Teffilohs. Especially when we Daven for Refuah Shleimo, we must daven for Yidden and Non-Yidden who are R”L not well.
That will strenthen our empathy and concern for every Human Being, regardless of what kind of mother they were born to. And that will be M’oirer Rachmei Shomayim.
HKB”H will, Never-Again, instigate any Haterd or Pogroms or Holocausts against us.
Reply to No. 5
Whenever we Jews don’t try to intermingle with non-Jews they will not hate us. When you say Never-Again, today more than ever we have a Spiritual Holocaust, that no Holocaust Survivor could have possibly imagined in Europe. I think if you would ask a Holocaust Survivor today the difference between what his generation through and ours is going through, he would say the following, “You have no idea what type hell the Concentration Camps that I went through were like, no matter have many book you have read on the Holocaust. The amount of nisyanos that you have today in your generation are unfathomable to me. I wouldn’t be able to stay frum in such a generation.
#1 It is a good idea to link Tisha bav and the holocaust. Problem is…it never happens. The churban batim are overwhelming and huge themselves.
Just as you can sit shiva during the month of Nissan, you can mourn those kedoshim and join in the day that a majority of Jews (even torah yiddim) stop to think, feel sorrow and recount the numerous stories of our grandparents from Europe.
Reply to bklynmom
In my opinion if it would be up to the Gedolei Yisrael, they would not have allowed Holocaust Memorial Day to be in the month of Nissan, rather they have it in the month of Av. The Talmud says in Sotah from the day the Beis HaMikdosh was destroyed their hasn’t been a day without its curse. Meaning that until the Beis HaMikdosh is standing again every day their will be tragedy. All tragedies, including come from the fact that we have no Beis HaMikdosh today. The holocaust, pogroms, blood libels etc. all come from the destruction of the Beis HaMikdosh. On tisha b’Av we mourn for not just the destruction of the Beis HaMikdosh, but all tragedies that have happened to our Nation.
The point is Yosef that a day in Nissan was chosen, so to be ‘porush min hatzibbur’ and cause undue anguish to survivors is a diorasa according to all daos.
really? You’re STILL arguing the day that was chosen decades ago? Of course Tisha B’Av would have been more appropriate, but for all that this discussion is pathetic. Nobody is stopping anyone linking the two – any ben Torah understand that no Churban would have meant no Shoah, but have some respect, because b’diyeved whats the problem with standing when the siren goes off, talking to your kids a little about the Shoa, and understanding what a chillul Hashem to the tinokai sh’nishbar it is if you are seen to be dismissive of Yom Hashoa! But you are right, there’s no mourning in Nissan, so by all means shave, get a hair cut, listen to music…oh wait….