Today in Israel is Holocaust Martyrs ‘ and Heroes ‘ Remembrance Day. At 10:00 this morning, loud sirens sounded throughout the country, calling people to stop for two minutes of silence and reflection. Arutz-7 links today to Israel National Radio which features
a series of testimonies given by Holocaust survivors. Among 12 accounts of suffering and survival, you can hear the following:
- Holocaust Survivor Kate Bernath describes life with the women in the barracks, the cruelty of slave labor, and the chaos of the final days.
- Major Anatoly Shapiro, a Russian soldier and Jew, describes his experience as the first person to liberate Auschwitz-Birkenau. Learn what it took to keep his unit from taking revenge on German soldiers, and what we must do to stop the next genocide against the Jews.
- Polish survivor Dr. Abraham Peter remembers starvation in the Lodz ghetto, what his family found when the Jews were liquidated, what the Poles called them when they were liberated, and what would do justice to the murdered.
- Efraim Kay of Yad Vashem discusses the most destructive extermination camp of Nazi Germany, why Auschwitz has come to symbolize the barbarism of the Nazis, and who paid the costs of the killing machine.
This is the only blog that covered this (except mine) that I found. Additionally, I saw no news stories mention the memorial day. Sad.