Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day 2017

Copyright © 2017 Yad Vashem

Restoring Their Identities: The Fate of the Individual During the Holocaust
Overview

Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah in Hebrew) is a national day of commemoration in Israel, on which the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust are memorialized. It is a solemn day, beginning at sunset on the 27th of the month of Nisan and ending the following evening, according to the traditional Jewish custom of marking a day. Places of entertainment are closed and memorial ceremonies are held throughout the country. The central ceremonies, in the evening and the following morning, are held at Yad Vashem and are broadcast on the television. Marking the start of the day-in the presence of the President of the State of Israel and the Prime Minister, dignitaries, survivors, children of survivors and their families, gather together with the general public to take part in the memorial ceremony at Yad Vashem in which six torches, representing the six million murdered Jews, are lit. The following morning, the ceremony at Yad Vashem begins with the sounding of a siren for two minutes throughout the entire country. For the duration of the sounding, work is halted, people walking in the streets stop, cars pull off to the side of the road and everybody stands at silent attention in reverence to the victims of the Holocaust. Afterward, the focus of the ceremony at Yad Vashem is the laying of wreaths at the foot of the six torches, by dignitaries and the representatives of survivor groups and institutions. Other sites of remembrance in Israel, such as the Ghetto Fighters’ Kibbutz and Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, also host memorial ceremonies, as do schools, military bases, municipalities and places of work. Throughout the day, both the television and radio broadcast programs about the Holocaust. In recent years, other countries and Jewish communities have adopted Yom Hashoah, the 27th of Nisan, to mark their own day of memorial for the victims of the Holocaust.

Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day 2017 will be on Monday, 24 April. The State opening ceremony will be held at Yad Vashem on Sunday, 23 April at 20:00.

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HUNGARY’S CONTROVERSIAL $22 MIL. HOLOCAUST MUSEUM ENTERS YEAR 3 OF DISUSE

JTA

The museum director has said Nazism was no worse than Soviet communism.

The controversial Holocaust memorial in Budapest, Hungary.. (photo credit:REUTERS)

Hungary’s $22 million Holocaust museum, whose construction was completed in 2015, has remained unopened due to intrigue within the government and disputes between it and the Jewish community, a news site reported.

Part of the reason for the delay is the refusal of the Mazsihisz federation of Jewish communities and the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem to cooperate with the House of Fates museum in Budapest, according to an expose published earlier this month by the news site 444.

Mazsihisz said it would have nothing to do with the state-funded museum because of the appointment of the historian Maria Schmidt to head it. Schmidt has said Nazism was no worse than Soviet communism — a narrative favored by nationalists across Eastern Europe that the Simon Wiesenthal Center classifies as a form of Holocaust distortion.

Mazsihisz briefly suspended its work with the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban on all Holocaust commemoration projects in 2014 over a statue commissioned by the government that was unveiled in Budapest. “The Occupation Monument” depicts an eagle attacking an angel — symbolism that Mazsihisz said whitewashes the complicity of the Hungarian authorities for the murder of hundreds of thousands of Jews in the Holocaust.

The House of Fates is located at the Józsefváros Railway station, where the transports had departed to death camps during World War II.

Seeking to avoid another public row with the Mazsihisz and international Jewish groups and institutions that supported its fight with the government, Orban sought to negotiate a working arrangement with the Jewish community that would allow it to become a part of the House of Fates, 444 reported.

János Lázár, Orban’s right-hand man and a senior Cabinet minister, said in 2014 that the government will only open the museum if a consensus is reached. Schmidt openly criticized Lazar in a Facebook post for “obstructing the opening” of House of Fates.

The historian attributed this to the influence of Gusztáv Zoltai, the former leader of Mazsihisz, whom Lázár used as an adviser on the issue. According to the expose, the fight between Lazar and Schmidt has further complicated efforts to open the House of Fates to the public.

Abbas: Willing to meet Netanyahu in Washington

Elad Benari

PA chairman tells Japanese newspaper he’s willing to meet Prime Minister Netanyahu under Trump’s patronage.

Mahmoud Abbas / Reuters

Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas said on Wednesday that he was willing to meet Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in Washington.

“I am ready to meet the prime minister of Israel any time in Washington under the patronage of President Trump. Will send our delegation to the U.S. to prepare for my visit there,” Abbas told the Japanese Asahi Shimbun newspaper in an interview.

The interview was published shortly after the White House announced that Trump and Abbas would meet in Washington on May 3.

“They will use the visit to reaffirm the commitment of both the United States and the Palestinian leadership to pursuing and ultimately concluding a conflict-ending settlement between the Palestinians and Israel,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters on Wednesday.

The meeting between Abbas and Trump was first discussed during a telephone conversation they held last month.

Following that conversation, Abbas praised Trump and said he brings “hope” for peace, even though PA officials had previously criticized Trump for his failure to stop Israeli construction in Judea and Samaria.

“We are glad that now the U.S. administration listens about us from us, and not from third parties. President Trump knows that we are committed to a Middle East that lives in peace, justice and dignity, based on a two-state solution, international legitimacy and [the] Arab peace initiative. And he knows that we are partners in combating terrorism in our region and worldwide,” Abbas told the Japanese newspaper on Wednesday.

Abbas has in the past rejected calls by Netanyahu to sit down for direct negotiations, choosing instead to impose preconditions on such talks.

Polish Prime Minister attends ceremony marking 74th anniversary of Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Becca Noy

Poland marked the 74th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising today with a ceremony in front of the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes. Members of the country’s Jewish community and Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo were among those who participated in the ceremony.

Warsaw, today Photo Credit: EPA

Hundreds of people gathered on Wednesday in order to mark the 74th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in front of the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes in Warsaw.

Members of the Polish Jewish community and Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo were among those who attended the ceremony honoring and remembering the Jews who courageously revolted on April 19, 1943, during the Second World War.

Thousands of Jewish people were killed in the uprising, which lasted about a month. The few who survived were deported to concentration camps.