Israel honors 6m Jews who died in Holocaust
Source: Agencies |
May 3, 2011, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
ISRAEL came to a standstill yesterday morning with a two-minute siren heard across the country as Israelis paid tribute to the 6 million Jews who died in the Nazi Holocaust.
Pedestrians froze in their tracks, buses stopped on busy streets and cars pulled over on major highways - their drivers standing on the roads with their heads bowed - in the annual ritual marking Holocaust Memorial Day.
In keeping with tradition, media carried somber music and numerous tales from the rapidly dwindling number of Holocaust survivors that included some 200,000 elderly Israelis. But the melancholy nature of the day was leavened by news that United States forces had killed terror mastermind Osama bin Laden just hours before.
"This successful operation sends the important message that terror and evil will find no permanent shelter and will eventually be destroyed, just as the Nazis decades before," Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said in a statement.
The Holocaust ended in 1945 with the Allied defeat of Nazi Germany. But the Nazi extermination of nearly a third of the world's Jewish population remains a strong undercurrent in Israel.
At a ceremony on Sunday night at the start of the sunset-to-sunset commemoration, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the most important lesson of the Holocaust is, "if someone threatens to destroy us, we must not ignore their threats."
Following the siren, Israeli leaders and Holocaust survivors attended an official wreath-laying ceremony at Yad Vashem, the national Holocaust memorial, in Jerusalem. Other ceremonies, prayers and musical performances took place in schools, community centers and army bases.
The annual remembrance is one of the most solemn in Israel. Restaurants, cafes and entertainment places closed. Radio and TV programming was dedicated to documentaries about the Holocaust, interviews with survivors and somber music. The Israeli flag flew at half staff.
At the Israeli parliament, Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres and other officials read names of loved ones who perished.
Pedestrians froze in their tracks, buses stopped on busy streets and cars pulled over on major highways - their drivers standing on the roads with their heads bowed - in the annual ritual marking Holocaust Memorial Day.
In keeping with tradition, media carried somber music and numerous tales from the rapidly dwindling number of Holocaust survivors that included some 200,000 elderly Israelis. But the melancholy nature of the day was leavened by news that United States forces had killed terror mastermind Osama bin Laden just hours before.
"This successful operation sends the important message that terror and evil will find no permanent shelter and will eventually be destroyed, just as the Nazis decades before," Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said in a statement.
The Holocaust ended in 1945 with the Allied defeat of Nazi Germany. But the Nazi extermination of nearly a third of the world's Jewish population remains a strong undercurrent in Israel.
At a ceremony on Sunday night at the start of the sunset-to-sunset commemoration, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the most important lesson of the Holocaust is, "if someone threatens to destroy us, we must not ignore their threats."
Following the siren, Israeli leaders and Holocaust survivors attended an official wreath-laying ceremony at Yad Vashem, the national Holocaust memorial, in Jerusalem. Other ceremonies, prayers and musical performances took place in schools, community centers and army bases.
The annual remembrance is one of the most solemn in Israel. Restaurants, cafes and entertainment places closed. Radio and TV programming was dedicated to documentaries about the Holocaust, interviews with survivors and somber music. The Israeli flag flew at half staff.
At the Israeli parliament, Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres and other officials read names of loved ones who perished.
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