i24 News – As the sun sets on Sunday evening, Israel and Jewish communities worldwide will begin observing Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, commemorating the millions of Jews who perished at the hands of the Nazis during World War II.

This year’s Yom HaShoah carries a larger significance, coming just months after the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, and amid ongoing war in the Middle East.

Yom HaShoah has been observed in Israel since 1951, with the date anchored in law by the Knesset in 1959.

Across the country, solemn ceremonies will take place, including a state ceremony at Warsaw Ghetto Square in Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem, where survivors will light six torches to represent the six million victims of the Holocaust. The day will also be marked by services at schools, military bases, and other public institutions.

This year, however, Yom HaShoah takes on added symbolism.

It arrives in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 onslaught, which resulted in the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. With as many as 100 hostages still held in Gaza and rising antisemitism globally, this year’s commemoration carries a heightened sense of urgency and remembrance.

In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emphasized the importance of remembering the Holocaust’s lessons and defending against present-day threats.

“If we do not defend ourselves, nobody will defend us,” Netanyahu stated. “Therefore, we will defend ourselves in every way. We will overcome our enemies and ensure our security – in the Gaza Strip, on the Lebanese border, everywhere.”

Reflecting on the significance of this year’s Yom HaShoah, Yad Vashem spokesperson Simmy Allen noted how the theme of “A Lost World: The Destruction of Jewish Communities” has taken on new meaning in light of recent events.

“This year’s Yom HaShoah is particularly poignant as we remember not only the victims of the Holocaust but also those who have suffered in recent attacks,” said Allen. “The resilience of survivors serves as a beacon of hope and strength in the face of adversity.”

In addition to traditional commemorations, the International March of the Living, an annual educational pilgrimage to Auschwitz, has adapted its approach this year.

Led by 55 Holocaust survivors, including some affected by the Oct. 7 attacks, the march aims to honor the memory of the Holocaust victims and educate participants about the horrors of the past. University presidents and chancellors from the United States and Canada will also participate, underscoring the importance of Holocaust education and remembrance.

US President Joe Biden also reflected on the solemn occasion, proclaiming May 5 through May 12, 2024, as a week of observance of the Days of Remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust.

“During Yom Hashoah and these days of remembrance, we mourn the six million Jews who were systematically targeted and murdered in the Holocaust,” Biden said.

“We honor the memories of the victims, the courage of the survivors, and the heroism of those who stood up to the Nazis, and we recommit ourselves to making real the promise of ‘Never Again.’”

The post Israel Set to Commemorate Yom Hashoah Under the Shadow of War and Global Antisemitism first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Israel’s Holocaust commemorations this year have a searing significance for six elderly survivors now deeply scarred by the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7 that sparked the ongoing Gaza war.

The killing and kidnapping spree by Palestinian terrorists on a Jewish holiday morning shook the sense of security of Israelis – not least, those who had witnessed the state emerge as a safe haven after the Nazi genocide.

For Bellha Haim, 86, the upheaval is especially profound.

Her grandson Yotam – like her, a resident of a village near the Gaza border – was taken hostage by Hamas and managed to escape, only to be accidentally shot dead by Israeli soldiers.

The trauma drove Haim to return to her native Poland, which she had fled with her family as a child during World War Two, and where she will on Monday take part in the “March of the Living” at the site of the Auschwitz death camp.

The annual ceremony is timed to coincide with Israel’s Holocaust memorial day.

“I never went back, and I wasn’t convinced to go back,” she said during a meeting with other survivors ahead of the trip.

“But this time, when they told me that they were connecting the Holocaust and what I call the ‘Holocaust of October 7′ – because then in the Holocaust we (Jews) were not a united people, we didn’t have a country, and suddenly this pride of mine that has been broken, my pride in my people and my country that was shattered in front of my eyes – I said, ‘This time I will break my oath and I will go out.’”

As a teenager, Yotam had taken part in the annual Auschwitz vigil and Haim said she saw the event as a chance for communion with him and other victims of the Hamas attack.

“I will go out in the name of Yotam, who marched there when he was in high school, and I will go out there to shout out the cry of the slain, of the babies, of all my good friends that I will never meet again,” she said.

ARABIC YELLING AND GUNFIRE

Among those joining her will be 90-year-old Daniel Louz, whose hometown Kibbutz Beeri lost a tenth of its residents to the Palestinian attackers.

In some ways, he said, that ordeal was worse for him than the European war, when he escaped Nazi round-ups in his native France although half his family perished in Poland.

After he awoke to the sound of Arabic yelling and gunfire, “I was constantly busy with surviving and figuring out what to do,” Louz said. “In France, as a child, I suffered all kinds of post-traumas that I’ve learned to cope with. But in Beeri, it was the first time that I felt the fear of death.”

A neighboring house was riddled with bullets. Louz’s was untouched. He says he imagined the souls of the six million Holocaust victims steering Hamas away from him. “They probably wanted me to be here to tell this story,” he said, weeping.

Other Holocaust survivors participating in the March of the Living include Smil Bercu Sacagiu, 87, whose home was hit by a rocket from Gaza, and Jacqueline Gliksman, 81, whose home was torched by a Palestinian infiltrator.

“What was left, and luckily the terrorist didn’t see it, is my grandchildren,” she said, referring to gold figurines on a necklace she was wearing. “That’s the only thing I have left.”

Before he was seized, Haim’s grandson left a text message: “They’re burning down my house. I smell gas. I’m scared.”

She said that reminded her of a Holocaust-era song in Yiddish, invoking centuries of pogroms, with the refrain “fire, Jews, fire”. A veteran campaigner for peace with the Palestinians, Haim said she would no longer pursue that activism.

“I’m not able to,” she said. “Now what interests me is only my people.”

The post Hamas Killing Spree Haunts Holocaust Survivors in ‘March of the Living’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hardened his rejection of Hamas demands for an end to the Gaza war in exchange for the freeing of hostages, saying on Sunday that would keep the Palestinian terrorist group in power and pose a threat to Israel.

Netanyahu said Israel was willing to pause fighting in Gaza in order to secure the release of hostages still being held by Hamas, believed to number more than 130.

“But while Israel has shown willingness, Hamas remains entrenched in its extreme positions, first among them the demand to remove all our forces from the Gaza Strip, end the war, and leave Hamas in power,” Netanyahu said.

“Israel cannot accept that.”

“Hamas would be able to achieve its promise of carrying out again and again and again its massacres, rapes and kidnapping‮.‬”

In Cairo, Hamas leaders held a second day of truce talks with Egyptian and Qatari mediators, with no apparent progress reported as the group maintained its demand that any agreement must end the war in Gaza, Palestinian officials said.

The war began after Hamas terrorists invaded southern Israel on Oct. 7, murdering 1,200 people and kidnapping 252 others as hostages. Israel responded with a military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and incapacitating Hamas to the point that it can no longer pose a major threat to the Israeli people from neighboring Gaza.

The post Netanyahu Says Ending Gaza War Now Would Keep Hamas in Power first appeared on Algemeiner.com.