|
Israel observes Holocaust Day
|
| Print |
|
E-mail
|
|
CULTURE
|
|
By Agencies
|
|
![Shimon Peres spoke at the ceremony at Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, Jerusalem, [EPA]](http://mwcnews.net/images/stories/Israel/1/2/3/4/Shimon-Peres-B.jpg "Shimon Peres spoke at the ceremony at Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, Jerusalem, [EPA]") | | Shimon Peres spoke at the ceremony at Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, Jerusalem, [EPA] |
Israel is observing Holocaust Remembrance Day, the annual commemoration of the deaths of six million Jews at the hands of the Nazis during the second world war.
Ceremonies began at sundown on Wednesday at Vad Vashem, Israel's official Holocaust memorial and research centre in Jerusalem.
Hundreds of holocaust survivors and other Israelis attended the evening that comprised speeches, prayers and music.
Shimon Peres, the Israeli president, spoke to the crowd and said that the country would never allow a Jewish genocide to occur again.
"We will never forget, we will never hide and we will never stop asking ourselves every morning what we must do to prevent what happened to ever repeat itself."
Six torches were lit at Vad Vashem – one for each of the one million Jews who lost their lives during the second world war. Restaurants and places of entertainment around the nation were closed during the ceremonies.
On Thursday morning an air raid siren rang out across the country to commence two minutes of silence in rememberance.
This will also begin a day of activities including the public reading of names of Holocaust victims at sites in Israel, one of which is the Knesset, the Israeli parliament.
Recommend this article...
Tags: Shimon Peres Israel observes Holocaust Day
|
