A day of reflection, and of remembrance

Barak: IDF will guarantee never again--Israel remembers victims of Holocaust with moment of silence, reading aloud of names at Knesset

Holocaust Remembrance Day was honored Monday morning with a siren marking a moment of silence throughout Israel at 10 am.

As on every year, flower wreaths were laid at Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum. The Knesset held its annual ceremony of the reading out of victims' names.

Today is Yom Hashoah Ve-Hagevurah, the Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust and the Heroism. It is the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising according to the Hebrew calendar.

It is a day of reflection of what was lost to the Jewish community, remembering those who perished at the hands of the Nazi regime. Please take a moment from your day to remember those killed in the name of hate, the genocide of 6 million souls.

Sadly, there are those who refuse to believe this ever happened. I don't think anything can truly change that--their minds are closed to truth. But for the rest of us, we must learn our history, and remember, so that it never, ever happens again.

For more information on the Holocaust, visit:

Yad Veshem: The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Although it was yesterday among the Diaspora

in Israel they marked the day today...

Israel mourns and remembers victims of the Holocaust

Israel came to a halt as citizens marked Holocaust Remembrance Day, commemorating the murder of six million Jews by the Nazis during World War II.

Sirens rang out across the country bringing drivers to halt, and they stood by their cars for two minutes' silent reflection.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used the occasion to warn against what he called a new threat to Jews from Iran.

There are more than 207,000 holocaust survivors living in Israel.

There are 63,000 fewer survivors remaining compared to two years ago, figures show.

Yesterday was Yom haShoah, the remembrance day for the Holocaust

Holocaust lessons stated anew: Services emphasize preserving memory

I confess that although I knew it was coming soon, I forgot the exact date. But I will never forget the millions killed by the Nazis and their collaborators. Tonight I'll light a candle for those who died, and those who survived--dwindling now, as age and death takes them one by one. But this article also talked of how those who came after, the legacy of hope that remained with each survivor, chose to remember their families' struggles each year anew.

'We will remember' in Hebrew in Nizkhor. We should never forget the martyrdom of those who died due to such terrible hate and desire to rid the planet of those different. Genocide, unfortunately, has not been eradicated as a result of the Holocaust, but we are more aware of it, and nothing to the scale of Hitler's plan has surfaced yet. But we must have constant vigilance to protect the future, and in order to avoid repeating history, must remember those who died or underwent the horrors of the Holocaust.

Remembering HaShoah

Today is a day (Yom haShoah) for remembrance of the Holocaust, or Shoah in Hebrew, Churben in Yiddish. It is a day to remember the six million or so Jews who died during the Nazis' 'Final Solution of the Jewish Question'. Although we normally think of the Jewish decimation during the Nazi regime, Gypsies, Slavs, homosexuals, political prisoners, people classified as mentally or physically defective, Freemasons, Jehovah's Witnesses, and others were also killed. Depending on which groups you include, the Holocaust victims range from 6 to 21 million persons. 78% of European Jews were estimated to have been killed during this time. Although the gas chambers are the most infamous symbol of the Nazi death machine, many Jews and others were killed by mass shootings after digging their own graves. But haShoah is primarily a day to mark the mass killings of Jews due to Nazi anti-Semitism and brutality.

It was a horrific time, but one to remember, for if we do not, we may be doomed to repeat it. Preventing genocide, rooting it out, is the responsibility of all humans, and of all of our governments. Whether in Europe, Cambodia, Rwanda, or Darfur--to name a few--genocide grows from prejudice and a thirst for power. Teaching tolerance is one preventative; pressuring those in power is another; sometimes war (as in World War II [although World War II was not about liberating Jews, as anti-Semitism was quite entrenched in Allied areas as well]) is the only answer.

Genocide is an open wound (and eventually becomes a horrible scar) upon the human consciousness. Those that commit genocide do everything they can to degrade and dehumanise those whom they hate. But as proved in the Holocaust, bodies may die, but the human spirit survives. And with that, perpetrators of genocide ultimately lose.

Below are some stories/resources talking about marking Yom haShoah. I'm sure if you look, you can find all sorts of really good resources. You may want to watch Schindler's List, Shoah, or dozens of other wonderful films. There are hundreds of books on the Holocaust or diaries from that time--the most famous one being Anne Frank's [Martin Gilbert's books are good for history; Elie Wiesel and Primo Levi write compelling memoirs]. But remembrance may be as simple as lighting a candle and reflecting on how to make our world one in which such suffering in anathema. However one chooses to mark the day, it's important that we do remember those who died and the legacy they left. We must never let those who deny the Holocaust gain ascendancy or allow genocide to be perpetrated again.

Young Jews march in memory of Holocaust victims at Auschwitz

Yom Hashoah: Holocaust Remembrance Day

Holocaust - Shoah

Holocaust