TEL AVIV – Israel came to a standstill as the entire country ground to a halt in memory of the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
Israel’s official state ceremony, held under the banner “Out of the Depths: The Pain of Liberation and Growth,” took place on Wednesday night, with a shadow still cast over the nation by the Oct. 7 massacre, the ongoing war against Hamas, and the 59 people, including Americans, still being held by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drew a connection between the Holocaust and the current threats facing Israel: “Eighty years ago, the Jewish people were defenseless. Today, we are no longer helpless. The State of Israel is strong, the IDF is strong, and we will do whatever is necessary to return our hostages and defeat our enemies,” he said.
“No decision, no resolution can prevent us from settling the score with these despicable, terrible barbarians, who are as bad as the Nazis, who kidnapped, murdered and raped our loved ones,” added Netanyahu, in reference to Hamas.
SKYROCKETING ANTISEMITISM IN CANADA SPARKS CONCERN FOR COUNTRY’S JEWS AHEAD OF ELECTION
President Donald Trump issued a proclamation to mark the solemn occasion. “The price to humanity of the lives lost during the Shoah can never be fully grasped or understood. Yet, even in the wake of the Holocaust, a self-determined Jewish homeland rose from the ashes as the modern State of Israel,” he noted.
“Sadly, our nation has borne witness to the worst outbreak of antisemitism on American soil in generations. Nearly every day following the deadly October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, Jewish Americans were threatened on our streets and in our public square – a reminder that the poison of antisemitism tragically still exists,” he added.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog vowed during the country’s main remembrance event to never allow another genocide to be perpetrated against the Jewish people.
“From this mountain of memory, Yad Vashem, we declare: We will not forget, we will not forgive and we will not remain silent. Not in the face of Hamas, not in the face of Iran, and not in the face of those who wish us harm – whether with missiles, machetes, or lies,” he said.
During the event, Holocaust survivor Gad Fartouk, 93, lit one of six memorial torches, before reciting a prayer: “May all the hostages come home soon. Amen.”
Herzog on Thursday traveled to Poland to lead the March of the Living at the former Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. This year, 80 survivors aged 80 to 97, many of whom were liberated from Nazi death camps, were joined by an Israeli delegation of 10 freed hostages.
“We will never forget or forgive the horrors of the Holocaust. Yet every representative who has come here from the Oct. 7 delegation is a triumph of light for the Jewish people, and a reminder that the Jewish people will exist for eternity,” said former captive Eli Sharabi, who is marching in memory of his brother Yossi, whose body is still being held in Gaza.
“The Jewish people sanctify life, not death. We come here with the hope that the covenant between the state and its citizens will be honored – that all the hostages will return, both the living to their homes and the fallen to a proper burial,” he added.
Also participating were family members of those murdered or still held captive, as well as relatives who have lost loved ones during the 18-month-long war.
Among the other participants was Merrill Eisenhower Atwater, great-grandson of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, who led the Allied push to liberate Europe. This year’s March paid special tribute to the Allied forces who liberated the Nazi camps 80 years ago.
Approximately 120,000 Holocaust survivors who immigrated to Israel remain alive, according to official data, with around 13,000 others having died in the past year. Some 2,500 survivors were impacted by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks, with most having been evacuated to safety from their homes.
A recent report titled “Vanishing Witnesses: An Urgent Analysis of the Declining Population of Holocaust Survivors,” projects that just half of these survivors will be living in six years, with just 30%, or about 66,250, remaining in 2035. By 2040, just 22,080 survivors will remain.
Established in 1951, Yom Hashoah is observed annually in Israel on the 27th day of the Hebrew calendar month of Nissan, falling some time in April or May, with ceremonies, programs and survivor testimonies taking place across Jewish communities worldwide.
