Israel - Event

A solemn and moving ceremony at Yad Vashem dedicated to the memory of Jewish Holocaust victims and those who fought to save them.

This national day of remembrance is marked at Yad Vashem with a gathering of dignitaries, including the Israeli President and Prime Minister, as well as survivors of the Shoah (as the Holocaust is known in Hebrew) and their children.

At sunset on the first day, six torches are lit in the Warsaw Ghetto Square within the Yad Vashem complex, each torch representing a million of the disappeared Jews. The Square itself is a replica of the memorials built at the entrance of the former Warsaw Ghetto, the largest enforced Jewish settlement and one best known for the uprising which pushed out the Germans before they liquidated the entire ghetto in 1943.

The next morning, after a minute's silence throughout the country, wreaths are laid at the base of each torch and the ceremony moves indoors to the Hall of Names, where a selection of the 350,000 names of Holocaust victims will be read out.

Yad Vashem itself is a massive complex which acts as both a memorial and a historical institute devoted to the Shoah. Housing both a museum of Holocaust history and one of Holocaust art, it also pays tribute in a variety of ways to those who disappeared and those who fought for them. Moving monuments to the adults and children lie alongside an avenue of trees devoted to those, like Oscar Schindler, who struggled to save Jews during the Shoah.