Israel observed Memorial Day today to commemorate the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust and to honor the Jewish resistance fighters who battled Nazis in the ghettos and forests of Poland and other occupied lands during World War II. The day of remembrance began at sundown yesterday. As in past years, a somber mood descended on the country, very much reminiscent of the eve of the Day of Atonement.
Coffee houses and all places of entertainment were closed. The State-owned radio and television broadcast low key programs, mostly devoted to the Holocaust. The streets were empty of their usual crowds and traffic was sparse.
This morning, at 8 a.m., all activity came to a standstill as the nation observed two minutes of silence for the fallen heroes and martyrs. The Knesset convened in a special memorial session–as it has done for the last five years. The galleries were filled with survivors of the Holocaust, the resistance movement and veterans who fought the Nazis in various Allied armies. There were many non-Jews present, including those who had aided Jews in their time of greatest travail and foreign diplomats, among them the West German Ambassador, Klaus Schuetz.
VIGILANCE AGAINST NEO-NAZISM
"Never Forget" was today’s slogan, as it has been for many years past. But a new slogan emerged, calling on Jews to fight the reemergence of neo-Nazism, especially its manifestation in the wave of nostalgia for the Nazi-era now sweeping West Germany.
Addressing himself to that situation, Deputy Premier Yigael Yadin told a memorial assembly at the Yad Vashem in Jerusalem that it was not enough for Israelis to remember the Holocaust but to keep reminding the world of it. "We shall remind the world that the battle with the Nazi beast is not yet over," Yadin said. "They have been succeeded by neo-Nazi groups and those who call themselves national liberation groups….We shall not allow history to repeat itself."
The services, at which six symbolic beacons were kindled for the six million Holocaust victims, were attended by President Ephraim Katzir and other public figures. A small group of pickets demonstrated quietly outside the West German Embassy in Tel Aviv to protest what they regard as a slackening of action against Nazi war criminals by the Bonn authorities and a seeming indifference toward the alarming revival of neo-Nazism and anti-Semitism in Germany. A petition was delivered and accepted by members of the Embassy staff.
The only jarring incident was the attempted self-immolation by the artist Andre Kielczinski who has a long record of violent demonstrations against West German authorities over delays in prosecuting Nazi war criminals. Kielczinski set himself on fire opposite the Embassy but his bums were slight and he was released from the hospital after treatment. He said later that this was the only way he could think of to express his strong feelings.
THREE MAIN TASKS
Traditional memorial ceremonies marking the 35th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising were held at Yad Mordechai, the kibbutz named after Mordechai Anilevitz, commander of the Warsaw Ghetto, who died in the revolt. A memorial meeting was also held at Kibbutz Tel Itzhak, addressed briefly by Chief of Staff Gen. Raphael Eytan who declared, "We must accumulate courage so that another Holocaust does not befall us."
The Yad Mordechai rally was addressed by Lean Dulzin, chairman of the World Zionist Organization Executive, who called on world Jewry to unite against the reemergence of neo-Nazism. He also spoke of the three main tasks of Jews today–aliya, efforts for peace and the maintenance of their continuity through Jewish and Zionist education.
Katzir was the principal speaker at the Ghetto Fighters Kibbutz north of Acre. He stressed the need not to forget so that Israel and the world can learn from the past and prevent the recurrence of a Holocaust.
According to instructions from the military high command, the chief education officer of the army organized information programs on the Holocaust for all units. Israeli schools marked the day with special lessons on the Holocaust. At some schools, survivors addressed the pupils, recounting their own experiences.
A six-branch menorah was kindled on the Knesset podium as the packed chamber rose to observe a minute of silence. MK Chaika Grossman, of Mapam, who was one of the commanders of the Bialystok Ghetto uprising and later fought in partisan ranks, warned that contemporary Jewry can not evade difficult questions such as: was the Holocaust a one-time event beyond the grasp of history, "was it really a Greek tragedy, the participants of which had no control over its course, was Auschwitz a phenomenon that cannot be repeated? For this never to happen again, one must remember."
Likud Minister Haim Landau, who spoke for the government, asked, "Can anybody expect us today to rely on the world which stood idly when our brethren were massacred?"
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
