Date in the current year: May 5, 2016

Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day)

Yom HaShoah, known as Holocaust Remembrance Day or Holocaust Day, is observed in Israel on the 27th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan. It commemorates the approximately six million victims of the Holocaust.

This day of remembrance was inaugurated in 1953. It was initially proposed to hold it on Nisan 14, which is the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, but this date is too close to Passover (Pesach). Therefore it was decided to move the date to Nisan 27, which is eight days before the Independence Day.

Public commemoration of Holocaust Remembrance Day includes the state memorial ceremony held at Yad Vashem, Israel’s official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, and the air raid sirens making off a two-minute silence intended for solemn reflection. Solemn ceremonies and services are held at military bases, schools and by other community and public organizations.

Religions elements can be included in the commemoration such as recitation of kaddish, memorial prayers, and Psalms as well as the lighting of memorial candles. If Yom HaShoah falls on a Friday or a Saturday, its observance is moved to the previous or the following day accordingly as it is inappropriate to mourn during Shabbat.

http://www.yomhashoah.org.uk/

Holocaust Remembrance Day 2016 Quotes: 12 Moving Sayings To Honor Victims On Yom HaShoah

BY ABIGAIL ABRAMS @ABBYABRAMS ON 05/05/16 AT 6:01 AM

Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Yom HaShoah in Hebrew, will be marked Thursday as people around the world gather to commemorate the millions killed by the Nazis during World War II. Over the course of the Holocaust, Nazi Germany slaughtered 6 million Jews, as well as millions of Roma, Slavs, gay people, individuals with disabilities and political enemies.

The somber day was established by the Israeli Parliament in 1951 to loosely align with the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, the largest Jewish revolt against the Nazis during the war. Today, communities, museums and synagogues mark Yom HaShoah by holding ceremonies that emphasize theimportance of remembering what happened during the Holocaust and focus on passing down memories of survivors to future generations.

Local governments and schools also often host Holocaust Remembrance Day events, which sometimes involve reading names of those who perished or discussing other instances of genocide throughout history. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has a map where you can look up remembrance events taking place near you.

In honor of the day and the focus on remembrance, here are 12 quotes by survivors, writers and leaders to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust.

“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” — Elie Wiesel

“Blessed is the match consumed in kindling flame. Blessed is the flame that burns in the secret fastness of the heart. Blessed is the heart with strength to stop its beating for honor’s sake. Blessed is the match consumed in kindling flame.” — Hannah Senesh

“Six million of our people live on in our hearts. We are their eyes that remember. We are their voice that cries out. The dreadful scenes flow from their dead eyes to our open ones. And those scenes will be remembered exactly as they happened.” — Shimon Peres

“Thou shalt not be a victim, thou shalt not be a perpetrator, but, above all, thou shall not be a bystander.” — Yehuda Bauer

“We must be listened to: above and beyond our personal experience, we have collectively witnessed a fundamental unexpected event, fundamental precisely because unexpected, not foreseen by anyone. It happened, therefore it can happen again: this is the core of what we have to say. It can happen, and it can happen everywhere.” — Primo Levi

“I don’t want to have lived in vain like most people. I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I’ve never met. I want to go on living even after my death!” — Anne Frank

“The duty of the survivor is to bear testimony to what happened … You have to warn people that these things can happen, that evil can be unleashed. Race hatred, violence, idolatries — they still flourish.” — Elie Wiesel

“Fiction cannot recite the numbing numbers, but it can be that witness, that memory. A storyteller can attempt to tell the human tale, can make a galaxy out of the chaos, can point to the fact that some people survived even as most people died. And can remind us that the swallows still sing around the smokestacks.” — Jane Yolen

“Survival is a privilege which entails obligations. I am forever asking myself what I can do for those who have not survived.” — Simon Wiesenthal

“I had to help them. There was no choice.” — Oskar Schindler

“Nations cannot be saved and must not be saved as an afterthought or from considerations of cost-benefit. Unless the moral fire burns within us, the lessons of the Holocaust will never be learned.” — Reuven Rivlin

“It’s a wonder I haven’t abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.” — Anne Frank

Yom HaShoah / יום השואה

Yom HaZikaron laShoah ve-laG’vurah (יום הזיכרון לשואה ולגבורה; “Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day”), known colloquially in Israel and abroad as Yom HaShoah (יום השואה) and in English as Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Holocaust Day, is observed as Israel’s day of commemoration for the approximately six million Jews and five million others who perished in the Holocaust as a result of the actions carried out by Nazi Germany and its accessories, and for the Jewish resistance in that period. In Israel, it is a national memorial day and public holiday. It was inaugurated on 1953, anchored by a law signed by the Prime Minister of Israel David Ben-Gurion and the President of Israel Yitzhak Ben-Zvi. It is held on the 27th of Nisan (April/May), unless the 27th would be adjacent to Shabbat, in which case the date is shifted by a day.

Yom HaShoah begins at sundown on Wed, 04 May 2016.

Yom HaShoah

Yom HaShoah (Yom HaShoa, Yom HaZikaron laShoah ve-laGvura) officially translates to “Remembrance Day for the Holocaust and Heroism”, but is often known as “Holocaust Remembrance Day” in English. It is an occasion to commemorate the lives and heroism of the six million Jewish people who died in the Holocaust between 1933 and 1945. Yom HaShoah is on the 27th day of Nisan, the first month of the ecclesiastical year in the Jewish calendar.

What Do People Do?

Yom HaShoah is a day of remembrance for the six million Jewish people who died in the Holocaust, and a range of events take place. In Israel, it is a national memorial day. On the evening beforehand, there is a state ceremony at the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes Authority, Yad Vashem. At 10am on the day of Yom HaShoah, air-raid sirens are sounded and people stop what they are doing to think of and pay respect to those who died. Places of public entertainment are closed and flags on public buildings are flown at half mast.

For many students at Jewish schools, a program of education on the Holocaust culminates around Yom HaShoah, with some students attending a memorial service at the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp near Krakow, Poland. The memorial ceremony has become known as “The March of the Living” or “The March of Remembrance and Hope”. Other schools and colleges organize lectures by Holocaust scholars, student essay competitions, readings of poetry written during or about the Holocaust, or presentations of music composed during the Holocaust. Attention may also turn to modern-day genocide and ways to prevent it.

Outside of Israel, Jewish people hold a range of commemorative events. These include: services, prayers and vigils in synagogues; educational programs in schools or community groups; showings of films about the Holocaust; talks by Holocaust survivors or their descendants; readings of the names of victims of the Holocaust; fasting; and the planting of trees or flowers. The Megillat HaShoah is a scroll and liturgical reading especially for Yom HaShoah. It is also common to light memorial candles and to recite the Kaddish, a prayer for people who died.

In the United States, Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorates the lives of those who died as a result of the racial purity measures in German-controlled Europe during World War II and to remind the public of the terrible deeds that can be carried out when bigotry, hatred and indifference are regarded as normal. Observances are lead by the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, which was created by an act of Congress in 1980. Events may be held during a week of Remembrance, which lasts from one Sunday through to the following Sunday and includes Yom HaShoah.

Public Life

Yom HaShoah is a Jewish observance but not a nationwide public holiday countries such as Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. However, as many Jewish people will take time on this day to remember the victims of the Holocaust, Jewish organizations may be closed or operate a reduced level of service.

Background

Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers Party, which he led, placed a lot of importance on their ideas of racial hygiene. They believed that it was possible to create a pure race of supreme German people using selective breeding techniques applied in agriculture. They wished to eliminate certain groups of people, who were seen as racially impure, from Germany. These included: Jewish people; the Roma; certain groups of people from Poland and Russia; Jehovah’s Witnesses; disabled persons; homosexuals; and Communists. The removal of Jewish people from German society was particularly well-planned and was referred to as the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question”. About 11 million people, of whom about six million were Jewish, died mainly in death and concentration camps.

It was originally proposed to hold Holocaust Remembrance Day on the 14th day of Nisan, the first month of the ecclesiastical year in the Jewish calendar. This is the anniversary of the ghetto uprising in Warsaw, which occurred on April 19, 1943, in the Gregorian calendar. However, the 14th day of Nisan is the day before the start of Passover (Pesach) and the 27th day was chosen instead. This is eight days before Israel’s Independence Day (Yom Ha’atzma’ut). Holocaust Remembrance Day has been observed in Israel since 1959. The date of Yom HaShoah may be moved forward or backwards, so that it does not fall on Friday or Saturday.

Yom HaShoah is not universally recognized or observed. Some groups remember the victims of the Holocaust on other days of mourning, many of which predate World War II. Examples are the ninth day of the month of Av, known as Tisha B’Av and which falls in July of August of the Gregorian calendar, and the 10th day of the month of Tevet, known as Asarah b’Tevet and which falls in December or January of the Gregorian calendar. Other groups criticize the day because it does not commemorate the lives of non-Jewish people who died in the Holocaust.

Symbols

A range of people, objects, texts and shapes symbolize the Holocaust. These include: Anne Frank and her diary; the railway cars used to transport people to concentration camps; gates with the words “Arbeit Macht Frei”; clothes worn by prisoners; swastikas; and the yellow stars of David that Jewish people were required to wear on their outer clothing. Symbols of remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust include recitations of transcriptions of lists of names of the victims and eternal flames, such as one that burns in the Hall of Remembrance (Ohel Yizkor) in Yad Vashem, Israel.