Olmert: No force stronger than Jewish spirit

"Those who deny the Holocaust deny Israel's existence," said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in his address at the Holocaust Remembrance ceremony at the Yad Vashem Museum on Wednesday evening in Jerusalem.

The event marks the commencement of memorial ceremonies throughout the country as Israel honors the memories of the six million Jews who perished at the hand of the Nazis during World War II.

"There is not force in the world stronger than the spirit of this people, who emerged from the abyss of annihilation to the summits of creativity, success and the might of the State of Israel."

Also in attendance at the ceremony were President Shimon Peres and Defense Minister Ehud Barak. First in the line of speakers, Peres went on to say in his address that "the victory over Nazi Germany salvaged the values of the human race and rescued the European continent from sinking into an era of darkness and devastation."

"Six million Jews, a third of the Jewish people, were exterminated by the devil's machine. They were annihilated only because they were Jews. Their blood cries out and will never stop crying out from the earth of Europe.

"All my life I have been and I remain still, a man of faith. But this doesn't help me understand what happened there. I cannot understand it to this very day, how could it be that German youths would aim their rifles at a pregnant woman and shoot her in cold blood. They ripped out her hair, pulled out her teeth, too a break to eat and rest, and then returned and shot her newborn. There is nothing more powerful than the cry of infants murdered in cold blood."

'What if Hitler had WMDs?'

Peres also criticized other nations, for failing to act during the Holocaust. "It is difficult for me to understand how other nations stood by. Blinded and paralyzed in the face of this snake. And some of them even sealed an alliance with the devil himself and joined his ranks," he said.

Hinting towards a more modern crisis viewed as existential by some, Peres said: "In my heart I am terrified when I recall there existed the possibility that Hitler might obtain a nuclear weapon. A leader who destructed masses with a weapon of mass destruction, combined. What would have been left of our world then?

"We have pushed back seven military campaigns and two intifadas that sought to destroy us, and we have signed two peace agreements. We built an army that knows how to triumph, but also to defend a peace-loving people."

Thursday events

On Thursday, IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi will lead the March of the Living from the Auschwitz to the Birkenau Nazi death camps in Poland.

At 10:00 am Thursday a siren will be heard throughout the country and Israelis will stand in attention for two minutes of silence. Immediately following the siren, wreaths will be laid at the foot of the memorial for

the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.

The annual ceremony 'Unto every person a name,' during which the names of Holocaust victims are read aloud, will begin at 10:30 at Yad Vashem and at the Knesset.

The main memorial will be held at 1:00 pm at Yad Vashem's Hall of Remembrance.