This evening (Wednesday), Israel opened the national Holocaust Remembrance Day with the official state ceremony at Warsaw Ghetto Square at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem.
Watch the live broadcast of the ceremony here:
As noted, the ceremony is taking place at Warsaw Ghetto Square at Yad Vashem, in the presence of the President and First Lady of Israel, the Prime Minister and his wife, the Speaker of the Knesset, Holocaust survivors, and their descendants. The event includes keynote addresses by the President and Prime Minister, the lighting of six torches by Holocaust survivors in memory of the six million murdered, as well as readings, musical performances, the recitation of Kaddish, the prayer “El Maleh Rachamim,” and the reading of a chapter from Psalms.
This year’s theme: “From the Depths: Pain, Liberation, and Growth”
This year’s ceremony marks 80 years since the surrender of Nazi Germany, under the theme: “From the Depths: Pain, Liberation, and Growth.” The central moment of the evening includes the lighting of six memorial torches by Holocaust survivors, the message from the survivors delivered by 95-year-old Eva Erben, and the prayer “El Maleh Rachamim” recited by 87-year-old survivor Yehuda Hauptman.
