Israel marks Holocaust Day
By JPOST.COM STAFF
04/12/2010 18:39
Ceremonies held nationwide in memory of victims of Nazi persecution.
. Photo: GPO
Sirens wailed throughout Israel Monday morning as the nation marked Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Wreaths were laid at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum in Jerusalem, where the official state ceremony was held..
President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi were in attendance.
In Poland, Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky and Tel Aviv Chief
Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, the chairman of Yad Vashem, will lead the
annual March of the Living from Auschwitz to Birkenau.
The march will proceed as planned despite the death of Polish President Lech Kaczynski in a plane crash in Russia on Saturday.
On Sunday evening U.S. President Barack Obama marked Israel’s Holocaust
Remembrance Day with a statement honoring the memory of "those who
endured the horrors" of the Nazi atrocities of World War II, the
Associated Press reported Sunday.
Obama said the Holocaust calls on all people to renew their commitment
to prevent genocide and "to confront anti-Semitism and prejudice in all
its forms."