Restoring their identities: Holocaust Remembrance Day events
Sunday evening, the events commemorating the Holocaust Martyrs 'and Heroes' Remembrance Day will begin in a state ceremony in the Warsaw Ghetto Square at Yad Vashem; the following day, at 10am, a two-minute siren will be heard and in Poland, the March of Life will take place in the Auschwitz camp; the events will conclude with a ceremony at Kibbutz Lohamei Hagetaot, for the first time with the participation of a former German president.
President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will both deliver speeches. Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev will kindle the Memorial Torch. Esther Miron will speak on behalf of survivors.
During the ceremony, Holocaust survivors will light six torches. First torch: Moshe Ha-Elion, second torch: Moshe Jakubowitz, third torch: Jeannine Sebbane-Bouhanna, fourth torch: Moshe Porat, fifth torch: Max Privler, sixth torch: Elka Abramovitz.
During the ceremony, short videos about each of the torch lighters will be shown. These videos will be available on the Yad Vashem website in the section dedicated to Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Singer Roni Dalumi and the IDF Paratroopers’ Honor Guard will participant in the ceremony and include narrative pieces by Actor Adir Miller. The evening’s MC will be Hila Korach.
The ceremony will include the traditional memorial service including the recitation of a chapter from Psalms by Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, David Lau. The Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, Yitzhak Yosef will recite the Kaddish and Cantor Lipa Glanz will perform El Maleh Rahamim, the Jewish prayer for the souls of the martyrs.
The ceremony will be broadcast live on television on Channels 1, 2, 10 and 33, on Channel 9 in Russian, and on Ynet, as well as on radio on Kol Israel and Galei Zahal. It will last about 75 minutes.
For the first time, Yad Vashem will broadcast the official ceremony marking the start of Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day. The live feed will be accessible via Facebook and Yad Vashem's YouTube Channel or through the Yad Vashem mini-site dedicated to Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day.
The mini-site is comprised of information about the events and ceremonies as well as relevant educational materials
Sunday, April 23
The state opening ceremony marking Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day will be held in Tel Aviv at 8pm, in the presence of Israel’s president, prime minister, speaker of the Knesset and deputy president of the Supreme Court and with the participation of 2,500 Holocaust survivors, members of the Diplomatic Corps, IDF soldiers and youth.
The Memory in the Living Room project will also take place in City Hall. In addition, there will be ceremonies in community centers throughout the city.
In Haifa, the municipal public memorial service will be held at 7:30pm at the Haifa Theater, with the participation of Mayor Yona Yahav, city council members, Holocaust survivors, members of youth movements and members of the Municipal Youth Council, students and the general public. Six Holocaust survivors will light torches.
At the center of the rally, which will be produced by the Haifa Municipality's cultural department, will be the play The The Paper Clips, based on the story of three middle school students from the small southeastern Tennessee town of Whitwell, who created a monument commemorating the Holocaust victims of Nazi Germany.
In Kiryat Haim, the main memorial assembly will be held at the Nagler House, with the participation of the Chairman of the Kiryat Hayim Committee, Itzik Piterman and Rabbi Yaakov Klein.
Monday, April 24
10:00am: Siren
10:02: Wreath-laying ceremony with the participation of Israel’s president, prime minister, deputy president of the Supreme Court Justice, chairman of the World Zionist Organization, chairman of the Jewish Agency, chief of the General Staff, chief of Police, acting dean of the Diplomatic Corps, mayor of Jerusalem, representatives of survivor and fighter organizations and delegations from throughout the country.
11:00am–12:45pm: “Unto Every Person There is a Name” Recitation of Holocaust victims’ names by members of the public—Hall of Remembrance
11:00am: “Unto Every Person There is a Name” Recitation of Holocaust victims’ names under the auspices of the speaker of the Knesset—Knesset
11:00am-02:30pm: "Behind-the-Scenes" Activities for the general public across the Yad Vashem campus (available in Hebrew only).
01:00pm: Main memorial ceremony—Hall of Remembrance
05:30pm: Ceremony for youth movements in the presence of the Director General of the Israel Ministry of Education, and in cooperation with the Ministry of Education’s Youth and Social Administration and the Youth Movement Council—Valley of the Communities
Throughout the day, Yad Vashem’s International School for Holocaust Studies will be running a variety of activities for educational groups from Israel and abroad, and holding a number of musical performances as part of the Music and Memory project in cooperation with the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance.
In Haifa, there will be other events on Monday, including a memorial ceremony commemorating those who perished and personal encounters with Holocaust survivors who chose to open their homes. In addition, survivors will arrive at community and educational centers such as the Leo Barak Center, Beit El, the Tiberias Community Center in the Hadar neighborhood and the Ohel Avraham Beit Midrash to tell their story.
At the same time, in Poland, the 29th March of Life will take place, where more than ten thousand young people from around the world will walk three kilometers from the Auschwitz camp to Birkenau as a silent gesture to the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis and their aides. The government will be represented by Minister of Education Naftali Bennett and also attending is Supreme Court President Miriam Naor and Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot.
At 7:45pm, the events of Holocaust Remembrance Day will be concluded in a ceremony at Kibbutz Lohamei Hagetaot in the presence of President Rivlin. For the first time in the history of the country, a senior German offiical will be hosted at the ceremony. Former German President Joachim Gauck will be President Rivlin's guest.
The rally will be held in cooperation with the Jewish National Fund under the title From Generation to Generation, and will focus on the transfer of responsibility for the memory from the first generation to future generations.
The rally will include survivors and their families, artists and musicians, residents of the north, public figures, members of the kibbutz movement, soldiers and youth movement members from all over the country.
(Translated and edited by N. Elias)
