At 8 o’clock this morning, sirens blew their mournful wails throughout Israel, continuing their sounds for two full minutes, All traffic throughout the country halted. In synagogues and on the sidewalks, on balconies fronting homes and in the fields, hundreds of thousands of men, women and children stood silent and erect. Israel thus launched the official commemoration of the Day of the Six Million, the day dedicated to the memories of those who perished during the Nazi holocaust.
In accordance with Hebrew custom, the commemorative observations designated for today by a formal resolution in Israel’s Knesset, the Parliament, were opened last night, when at least 55 memorial meetings were held throughout the country. The streets in the large cities took on the appearance of mourning. Movie houses and other places of entertainment were closed. Street lights were dimmed. The rustle of shuffling feet and slow traffic carrying many thousands to the meetings only emphasized the atmosphere of solemnity pervading the entire country and its populace.
Every synagogue in the land held memorial services last night. At Tel Aviv, 3, 000 persons jammed the Mann Auditorium, while thousands filled the Great Synagogue where the city’s Chief Rabbi Isser Yehuda Unterman officiated over the services. At Haifa, Chief Rabbi Yehoshua Kaniel presided over the principal memorial service. In school buildings and houses of worship, in the communal halls of kibbutzim and in every other conceivable gathering place, large masses turned out to usher in the Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust, co-sponsored by the Government and the Yad Vashem Authority.
NON-JEWS WHO SAVED JEWS FROM NAZIS ATTEND JERUSALEM CEREMONY
A moving ceremony, attended by many members of the diplomatic corps and leading members of Israel’s Government and Parliament, was held this morning on Har Hazikaron, Mount Remembrance, on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Here, under the chairmanship of Mrs. Golda Meir, Israel’s Foreign Minister, homage was paid to non-Jews who, during World War II, saved many thousands of Jewish lives at the risk of their own safety. Two rows of trees were dedicated, to be known as the “Avenue of the Righteous Gentiles.” First saplings were planted along this avenue on the mountain dedicated to remembrance.
Twelve non-Jewish men and women, brought here by the very Jewish survivors whose lives they had saved, attended these ritualistic ceremonies. One was a Russian woman, Maria Babicz, 84. Another was a Polish Army officer, Col, Vladislav Kovalsky, who, at the risk of his own life, had sheltered 40 Jews during World War II. There was a man and his wife from Holland, another couple from Belgium, a seamstress from Czechoslovakia.
“These heroic people,” said Mrs. Meir in her address, “saved more than Jewish lives. They also saved faith in the human race. Together with the trees we plant here today in honor of our dead, we plant also trees of Light and Hope, we raise beacons dedicated to the human values dear to all mankind.”
Not only atop Har Hazikaron, but on every flag-pole on every building in Israel, private or public, the Israeli flag flew at half-mast. Israel remembered.
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