Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Peres: Israel Is ‘Only Possible Memorial Standing’ for Holocaust Victims

Israel is “the only possible memorial standing” for the victims of the Holocaust, Israeli President Shimon Peres said.

“Israel is deterrence against any attempt at another Holocaust,” he said during a ceremony Sunday night at Yad Vashem at the start of Israel’s 24-hour observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Yom Hashoah.

“A strong Israel is our response to the horrors of anti-Semitism, but it does not excuse the rest of the world from its responsibility to prevent this disease from returning to their own homes,” Peres said.

The theme of this year’s remembrance is ”1944: From Extermination to Liberation.”

Six Holocaust survivors representing the 6 million Jewish victims of the Nazis lit torches in their memory during the ceremony after telling their stories in a prerecorded video.

The ceremony was broadcast on all Israeli television channels and on several radio stations. On Yom Hashoah in Israel, places of entertainment are closed and Holocaust themed-movies and documentaries are shown on television channels. Memorial ceremonies are held throughout the country.

Following a two-minute siren on Monday morning, a national wreath-laying ceremony will be held at Warsaw Ghetto Square in Yad Vashem and the names of Holocaust victims will be read out over the following hours.

The B’nai B’rith World Center in Jerusalem and Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael on Monday morning will honor Jews who rescued fellow Jews during the Holocaust. During the ceremony, a Jewish Rescuers Citation will be conferred by the Committee to Recognize the Heroism of Jewish Rescuers During the Holocaust and the B’nai B’rith World Center on seven rescuers or their descendents.

Also in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Israel Electric Corp. and Yad Vashem have launched a project to document the stories of Holocaust survivors who once worked for the company.

“Hundreds of IEC retirees who survived the horrors of the Holocaust took part in establishing the utility and infrastructure development of the state of Israel,” IEC Chairman Yiftah Ron-Tal said in a statement. “As a national company, it is a moral obligation to act with all the means at our disposal to strengthen the memory of the Holocaust and collective memory, which unites us as a society.”

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.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version