{"id":994,"date":"2014-01-28T19:14:20","date_gmt":"2014-01-28T19:14:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/?p=994"},"modified":"2014-03-07T05:01:10","modified_gmt":"2014-03-07T05:01:10","slug":"holocaust-remembrance-day-and-the-march-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/holocaust-remembrance-day-and-the-march-of-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Holocaust Remembrance Day and The March of Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Esther Korson<\/p>\n

Yesterday was International Holocaust Memorial Day.\u00a0 (It is commemorated later in the year here in Israel, this year on the 28th of April).\u00a0 It is impossible to understand Israel without understanding the Holocaust.\u00a0 We\u2019ve been a nation for 65 years, and the total population of the country is by now around 7 million.\u00a0 It is heartrending to remember that six million of our people were systematically murdered, including 1\u00bd million children. It is the reason why relationships and friendships here are truly valued; why family life is so strong; why children and the elderly are loved and treasured.\u00a0 And it is the reason why we do not take our security lightly.\u00a0 As former Prime Minister Menachem Begin famously said, \u201cAfter the experience of the Holocaust, when our enemies threaten to destroy us\u2026we have to take them seriously\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rememberance<\/a>

Rememberance Day – Photo by Ouria Tadmor<\/p><\/div>\n

Yesterday over half of the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) travelled to Poland, the largest number of Knesset members ever to attend an event outside of the country. This marked 69 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp where a million Jewish people were murdered, and they visited the site along with many others. Holocaust commemoration events were held in many countries around the world. UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon on a video message said, \u201cI recall a recent journey of my own to Auschwitz.\u00a0 I will never forget my visit. I saw the horrific remnants of the machinery of genocide as well as moving images of European Jewish life in the 1930\u2019s\u2014weddings, family meals, rituals, simple daily life, all extinguished through systematic murder\u2026\u201dOn yesterday\u2019s IBA English TV news, the nation was also presented with an amazing testimony from a church in Tubingen in southern Germany through a really moving news clip by Pastor Ted Pearce.\u00a0 As he explained on the news broadcast, about a decade ago this church began to examine the past of the people in the congregation, and was shocked to find out that almost all of them were descendants of real Nazis. And it moved the church to do something about that.\u00a0 And actually, more war criminals, including some of the most sadistic murderers, came from Tubingen than from any other city. Following the Holocaust, most people throughout Europe would hide behind a cloak of silence, falsely claiming, \u201cWe didn\u2019t know anything.\u201d\u00a0 The church in Tubingen decided to break the cloak of silence publicly in their city.<\/p>\n

\nLoading Quotes...\n<\/div><\/div>\n