"Yom HaShoah" in Israel

Children are in the center of this year's Holocaust Remembrance Day


B"H

Until today, there are 280.000 Holocaust survivors living in Israel. Israel's daily newspapers report that among those survivors are 60.000 living below the poverty line, and even call upon every Israeli to do some "Cheshbon Nefesh – Thinking about one's mistakes".

This evening (Monday), the opening memorial service for the victims of the Holocaust is going to take place at the Jerusalem Holocaust Museum "Yad Vashem". Six survivors are going to light the candles:

1. Leah Paz, survivor from Poland, born in 1930, survived because her mother pushed her out of the train while going to one of the death camps. Today she is a widow, has two children and six grandchildren.

2. Miriam Schuster, survivor from Serbia, born in 1935, married, three children and eight grandchildren.

3. Solomon Feigerson, survivor from Lithuania, born in 1930, survived KZ Stutthof, married, one son.

4. Esther Devorah Reiz - Mossel, survivor from Holland, born in 1938, was imprisoned in Bergen - Belsen, a widow, three daughters and five grandchildren.

5. The twins Yehudit Barnea and Lia Huber, survivors from Transylvania, born in 1937, were abused in Auschwitz by Dr. Joseph Mengele for medical experiments. Today both are married, have children and grandchildren.

6. Shimon Grinhoiz, survivor from Belarus, born in 1932, married, four children and three grandchildren.

All of them live in Israel.


Schedule for tomorrow's official events (Tuesday 21 April 2009 / 27 Nissan 5769)

10:00 am – All over the country, the sirens will be heard for two minutes. Usually people stand attention and remember the victims of the Holocaust.

10:02 am – Memorial service at the Jerusalem Yad VaShem in the presence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the General – Chief – of - Staff Gabriel "Gabi" Ashkenazi as well as President Shimon Peres.

8:30 am – 3:30 pm – Schools are organizing seminaries and lectures

11 am - "Le Kol Ish Yesh Shem - "Every human has a name". Names of victims will be read in the Knesset.

3 pm – Memorial service for the Hungarian Jewry at Yad VaShem

4 pm – Memorial service for the French victims at Yad VaShem

5:30 pm – Memorial service organized by the Israeli youth and Israel's Minister of Education (Yad VaShem)

6:30 pm - Exchanging thoughts and dialogs in Tel Aviv

8:30 pm – The Jerusalem Theatre is showing the movie "Leharog et Kasztner – Killing Kasztner".
Rudolph Kasztner was a more than controversial figure during the time of the Holocaust. Kasztner was Hungarian and, at that time, the head of the Jewish Agency in Budapest. Many people see him as a hero because he made a deal with the Nazis and organized the famous "Kasztner Train" leading more than 1000 Jews out of Hungary. Hundreds of thousands of other remained in died in the gas chambers.
Others see in Kasztner the devil and as collaborator helping the Nazis killing the remaining Jews.
Later on, Kasztner moved to Israel, got a high governmental position, was taken to court and shot in the middle of a street in Tel Aviv.
I have been collecting material about the "Kasztner Case" in order to write a longer article in the near future. In the meantime I founded a "Kasztner Group on Facebook". A member of this group is part of a new movie coming out and he sent me this link:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/video/video.php?v=1110106708979&oid=103765575430

"Yom HaShoah" is always a depressive day and the press, TV and radio only publish Holocaust survivors or other documentaries connected to the subject.

In case you are in Israel as a tourist:
Tonight, Monday, shops, restaurants, cafes, cinemas, etc. will be closing earlier. At about 6 pm.
Buses will run as usual.

When the first memorial service begins at Yad Vashem, the "Durban II" conference will be opened in Switzerland. I don't need to say anything on this because everyone knows that one of the greatest Holocaust deniers ever is taking part in it.
Israel, on the other hand, does appreciate that countries such as Italy, Germany, the US, Canada, Holland or Australia are boycotting the anti – Semitic event.

Link:

Europe still in Fear