VIDEO - At 10:00 am Thursday a two-minute siren was heard across Israel, as
people bowed their heads and stood in silence in memory of the six million Jews that perished in the Holocaust.
The siren marked the commencement of Holocaust Remembrance Day events throughout the country, with ceremonies at Yad Vashem,
the Knesset and various educational institutions.
President Shimon Peres attended
a ceremony during which wreaths were laid at the foot of the memorial for the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in Yad Vashem.
Moment of silence in Jerusalem (Photo: Gil Yohanan)
The Knesset held its annual Holocaust remembrance ceremony, dubbed "'Unto every person a name," during which the names of Holocaust victims are read aloud.
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| Memorial service at Yad Vashem |
Video courtesy of infolive.tv
Six memorial candles were lit during the ceremony. Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel Yona Metzger read from the Liber Psalmorum and Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Israel Shlomo Amar said Kadish; and Chief Military Cantor Lieutenant-Colonel Haim Wiener, recited the El Maleh Rahamim ("God of mercy") prayer.
During the reading of the victims' names, President Peres – who recited the names of his grandparents – took a moment to speak of his memory of them: "When we said goodbye in the train station, before I left to come to Israel, they gave me just two words – 'be Jewish.'"
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert read
the names of his wife's family, who were lost to the Holocaust. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni honored
the women who were killed while fighting the Nazis and Defense Minister Ehud Barak
recited names of members of his mother's family.
Other Knesset Members, such as Benjamin Netanyahu,
Ronnie Bar-On, Avi Dichter and Rafi Eitan recited names as well. MK Ahmad Tibi (United Arab List-Ta'al), who attended the ceremony, said "the Holocaust is the most atrocious crime ever committed against humanity. I feel for the families who lost their loved ones to the hateful, racist Nazi monster."
Honoring those lost (Photo: Reuters)
Other major ceremonies will be held later in the day at Mount Herzl, Kibbutz Yad Mordechai and Kibbutz Lohamey HaGeta'ot.
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.
The central Holocaust Remembrance ceremony was held at the Yad Vashem Museum on Wednesday evening in Jerusalem. "Those who deny the Holocaust deny Israel's existence," said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in his address at the event.
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