Yom HaShoah: Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day

Israelinurse
CiF Watch
02 May '11

Here in Israel we commemorate the Holocaust on a different day to that chosen by the rest of the world and that difference is very significant.

In 2005 the UN designated January 27th as Holocaust Memorial Day – the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau by the advancing Soviet army.

Israel commemorates the Holocaust on the 27th of Nisan and remembers not only the genocide of six million Jews in Europe, but also the 93,000 Jewish Partisans, members of the Resistance and Ghetto fighters who actively opposed the Nazi regime.

Whereas the international memorial events take place on the anniversary of the rescue of Jews by a foreign force, the Israeli commemorations also highlight those who, despite having no country of their own, no support network or supply lines actively fought and worked to defeat the Nazis and save as many lives as possible. Those brave men and women were active all over Europe and North Africa, in forests, ghettos, towns and concentration camps and the wide variety of forms which the resistance took is echoed in Haim Gouri’s famous poem.

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