Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day commenced Sunday with the official opening ceremony held at the Warsaw Ghetto Square at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem.
President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered remarks at the ceremony. Yad Vashem Council Chairman and Holocaust survivor Rabbi Israel Meir Lau lit the memorial torch. The event began with a prayer for the return of captives held by Hamas and the well-being of fighters, and embracing bereaved families.
The ceremony's honor guard consisted of six Holocaust survivors who lit torches. Holocaust survivor Chaim Noy gave the survivors' speech. Videos recounting the life stories of the torchlighters were screened. This year's theme was "See, there were communities and they are no more: The Jewish community and its destruction."
Video: Netanyahu delivers a message in English during his Holocaust Remembrance Day speech / Credit: Yad Vashem
Israel's Chief Rabbis Rabbi David Lau and Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef recited psalms and the Kaddish prayer. Holocaust survivor Yitzhak Perlmutter recited the El Maleh Rachamim memorial prayer. In his opening speech, President Herzog reflected on commemorating the Holocaust amid the ongoing conflict, societal rifts, and a sense of lost trust and direction. He emphasized the post-Holocaust generations' vow of "never again," stating: "We swore that the Jewish people would never again stand helpless and unprotected. Yet, in spite of it all, because of it all, the scenes of mourning on October 7 shook us all, echoing the horrors of the Holocaust in our hearts...Even for me, the descriptions of mothers silencing their infants lest their crying give away their hiding places; of children torn from their parents; and of loathsome murderers who saw the Nazis as a model to emulate, and hunted, burned, and slaughtered entire families echoed the most dreadful in our people's history."
Herzog stressed that while the October events were horrific, "This was not the Holocaust. The Holocaust was the darkest abyss in human history, by any measure...Because today, we have the State of Israel and the Israel Defense Forces. Although the catastrophe's effects still shake us, we do not forget that we have what our brethren who perished could only dream of – a state and army of our own."
Video: Families of the hostages protest in silence near the Defense Ministry on Holocaust Remembrance Day, May 5, 2024
Netanyahu addressed the Holocaust survivors as "an immense inspiration" and "witnesses to the rebirth after the extermination of communities." He described the connection between the past and present struggles, citing the story of a fallen IDF officer whose grandfather was a Holocaust survivor:
"Staff Sergeant Moshe Moshe Yedidya Leiter...went into battle in the Gaza Strip bearing the legacy of the Holocaust on his shoulders. When his father Yechiel asked him how he could bear such a heavy burden, Moshe would reply: 'It is the burden of generations, a burden of responsibility that gives meaning to my service in the Israel Defense Forces'...He understood that he was fighting in Gaza not just for his great-grandfather who survived the Holocaust, but for the 6 million brothers and sisters murdered in it." At one point Netanyahu also spoke in English, saying he would like to say a few sentences for the world audience. "As the prime minister of Israel the one and only Jewish state I pledge here today from Jerusalem,on this Holocaust Remembrance Day: If Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone."
Back in Hebrew, he said on continuing the conflict, Netanyahu vowed: "We will fight the monsters of Hamas and complete the elimination of their capabilities...Exactly here lies the difference between the Holocaust and the rebirth – unlike the Holocaust when we were helpless, today the Jewish people have defensive power."
He addressed rising antisemitism bluntly: "Antisemitism that was once concealed is returning in all its ugliness...Today there are new allegations - committing genocide and starvation in Gaza. The truth is the complete opposite, which people believe only because we are Jews. What a moral bankruptcy – the lie has become truth, the truth has become a lie."
Netanyahu condemned the harassment faced by pro-Israel Jewish students at prestigious US universities, stating: "Like in past days, the false accusations are directed at us simply because we exist...Students supporting Israel face daily threats, insults, and harassment, afraid to wear a kippa, tzitzit, or Star of David, with bullies barging into classrooms."
