Israel / Jewish Holocaust

Israel Mourns and Remembers Victims of the Holocaust
BBC Online, April 12, 2010
"Israel came to a halt as citizens marked Holocaust Remembrance Day, commemorating the murder of six million Jews by the Nazis during World War II. Sirens rang out across the country bringing drivers to halt, and they stood by their cars for two minutes' silent reflection. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used the occasion to warn against what he called a new threat to Jews from Iran. There are more than 207,000 holocaust survivors living in Israel. There are 63,000 fewer survivors remaining compared to two years ago, figures show. On the front page of one of the country's leading circulation Hebrew daily newspaper, Yedioth Ahranoth, there was a black and white picture of a bearded polish man, covered in a prayer shawl, kneeling before two Nazi officers, clenching his fists. It was a picture of the maternal grandfather of Meir Dagan, the head of Israel's spy agency Mossad, in the moment before he was executed by the Nazis. It comes from Mr. Dagan's personal library. 'I see that photo every day and vow that a thing like that will not happen again,' he said. ... At Jerusalem's Yad Vashem, the state memorial authority, President Shimon Peres and Mr. Netanyahu joined other lawmakers and cabinet minister in reading out the names of family members killed in the Nazi death camps. 'If we have learned anything from the Holocaust, it is that we must not be silent or be deterred in the face of evil,' Mr. Netanyahu said. ... Television and radio stations gave their entire day's programming over to the Holocaust. [...]"