Holocaust remembrance amid the Israel-Hamas War - opinion

Each year, on the 27th of the Hebrew month of Nissan, Israel commemorates Yom Hashoah, the Holocaust memorial day for the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis. The largest number were cruelly gassed and burnt in specially constructed extermination camps; others perished from weakness and hunger, having been worked to death in labor camps, while others still were shot as target practice and for pleasure. 

In 2024, the commemoration took place on May 6. This year, Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day – as it is officially called – was particularly poignant because it fell 212 days after October 7, when Arab terrorists from Gaza mounted a surprise attack in the early hours of the morning on Israel’s southern border communities. 

They brutally burned babies alive and raped Israeli women before mutilating and in some cases decapitating them. They torched and destroyed Israeli villages and dragged many inhabitants to Gaza as hostages.

The Supernova music festival in the area became another location of this massacre that caused the death of some 1,200 men, women and children. A further 250 were forcefully taken to Gaza, among them children as young as six months old. The cruelty of those terrorists and of the Gazan civilians who followed them into our villages to loot and pillage defies all description.

March of the Living during the Israel-Hamas War

For me, the most important venue on this Holocaust Remembrance Day was the site of the extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland, where the global organization International March of the Living (MOTL), arranged for more than 7,000 people to march in distinctive MOTL blue jackets from the gates of Auschwitz into the extermination area at Birkenau. 

It was a most moving event within approximately 55 meters from the ruins of the gas chambers. Fifty-five Holocaust survivors led the march in open golf buggies along the historic three-km. road, at intervals guarded by the very helpful Polish police force. And the fire service attended in appreciable numbers to salute the marchers.

A small group of protesters carrying Palestinian flags held the first anti-Israel rally in the 36 years since the March of the Living started. “The half a dozen protesters who perversely saw this as an opportunity to voice hatred against Israel and the Jewish people serve as a timely reminder of the importance of Holocaust eduction and remembrance,” MOTL said in a statement.

A one-minute siren welled up the emotions at the start of the three-hour ceremony. We heard remarks from Phyllis Greenberg Heideman, president of the International March of the Living; Doron Almog, chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel; and KKL-JNF Chairwoman Ifat Ovadia-Luski. 

This year’s March of the Living “holds profound significance, as the horrors of the past intertwine with the present ongoing nightmare faced by... Israel,” Heideman said.

We also heard a video message from Israel’s President Isaac Herzog, emphasizing the importance of remembering, especially today.

“This year, the darkest tragedies of our past do not feel so distant,” he said. “Although the Holocaust stands alone in the history of human crimes, we have been grieving deep tragedy over the past months. The sickness of blind hatred has been unleashed, once again, in our own world and time. May your march go forth proudly this year. May it carry the history of everyone who has ever fought for justice and humanity in the face of hatred. And may it send a resounding call for freedom for every last hostage, for the values of justice, democracy, humanity and life across the world.”

There was particular emphasis this year on the 424,000 Hungarian Jews murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau. There was an emotional rendition of the song “Eli, Eli,” written by Hungarian-born war heroine Hannah Szenes, who was executed by the Nazis on November 7, 1944, at the age of 23. Then Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau – the emeritus chief rabbi of Israel and child survivor of the Holocaust – compared the 1930s to the antisemitism of today and appealed to Diaspora Jewry to “come home to Israel.” A video presentation underscored the rise of antisemitism in the world today.

IDF chief cantor Lt.-Col. Shai Abramson’s meaningful rendition of “Vehi Sheamda” moved the participants to quietly join in. Top Israeli singer Noa Kirel sang “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” a song written in 1939 on the eve of World War II by Jewish lyricist Yip Harburg. It expresses a young girl’s yearning for a more hopeful future, which was denied so many Jewish children.

The call “Am Yisrael chai” (The Jewish people lives) ended almost every contribution. “El Malei Rachaimim,” the Jewish prayer for the departed, was chanted by Netanel Hershtik, the cantor of the Hampton Synagogue. After recitation of the mourner’s Kaddish, an honor given to me, the ceremony concluded with the Israeli national anthem, “Hatikva.”

Gabriella Karin, one of the Holocaust survivors participating in the March of the Living, said she had dedicated her life to educating the younger generation about the Holocaust. “We are all the same. You don’t have to love everybody, but we have to respect every person on this Earth,” she said. “We all have a right to be here.”

Holocaust survivors are aging. Once they are no longer able to, who will tell their stories? We must pass the torch of Holocaust memory to new generations.

After October 7, there has been almost no time to revert to normal life because daily we are reminded that our brave soldiers of all ages are fighting on several fronts to defend our country from an attack in the North, and to search for the 128 men, women, and children still being held hostage by Hamas.

In the South, this war will not end until the cruel terrorist militia of Hamas and its leadership are totally defeated.

According to a Defense Ministry announcement on Memorial Day, 760 precious Jewish fighters made the supreme sacrifice in the past year.

Throughout the ages, the Jewish people have been the target of attempted elimination, but we have always stood at the graves of our persecutors. On the fourth day of the Hebrew month of Iyar – Remembrance Day – at the national ceremony on Mount Herzl and other military cemeteries throughout the country, Israel remembered the 25,034 men, women, and children who have been killed in terrorist attacks and in defense of the Land of Israel.

Because the philosophy of Judaism is to accentuate the positive, Israel celebrates its Independence Day immediately after nightfall of the saddest Remembrance Day in decades, which fell this year on May 13. This emphasizes and symbolizes the connection between the sacrifice of the fallen and the establishment of the State of Israel. However, this year the war and the present hostage situation overshadowed everything. Thereafter, the main celebrations were subdued. The torches were lit by representatives of all facets of Israeli society who heroically contributed to the war effort.

In our synagogues, the Hallel prayer was recited, giving thanks to the Almighty for the rebirth of Israel 76 years ago.■