Ashkenazy: Holocaust lesson learned

Netanyahu & Peres call for world reaction to Iran's genocidal intentions.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
holocaust painting 311 (photo credit: AP)
holocaust painting 311
(photo credit: AP)
Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazy said at a Holocaust Memorial Day event at Yad Yitzhak's Massuah Institute on Sunday that today we face waves of anti-Semitism as we did then and calls by organizations, leaders and nations who wish to complete the ambition of the Nazi enemy. However, Ashkenazy said, today those enemies do not face a helpless people crying for the mercy of others, but a state resolved to defend itself and fight for its independence. We have learned our lesson and will do everything it takes so that the citizens of Israel can feel safe in their homes.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's speech at theHolocaust Memorial Day ceremony at Yad Vashem on Sunday focused on the rising Iranian threat, a threat to repeat the holocaust. “In the face of [Iran’s] calls to erase the Jewish state from the face of the earth repeated time and again, we see at best mild protestations, and this too seems to be fading,” Netanyahu lambasted the international community.
PresidentShimon Peres before him also addressed the Irianian threat in his speech, stressing thatthe world can not display the apathy that cost so many their lives inthe past.
"It is our right and duty to demand of the world'snations to not repeat their indifference, which has cost millions ofhuman lives, including theirs. The United Nations must be attentive toannihilation threats coming from one of its members, against anothermember state," said Peres.
The central Holocaust RemembranceDay ceremony at Yad Vashem began Sunday evening at 8 p.m. and wasbroadcasted live on Israeli television. The central theme for thisyear’s Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day will be the Voiceof the Survivors – those who, according to a museum press release,“honor the victims and strive to safeguard their memory.”
PresidentShimon Peres and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu are slated to speakat the ceremony. Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, himself a Holocaustsurvivor, will light the Memorial Torch. Hana Weiss will represent thesurvivors.
During the ceremony, Holocaust survivors will light six torches. Firsttorch: Eliezer Ayalon; second torch: Leo Luster; third torch: SaraIsraeli; fourth torch: Hannah Gofrit, fifth torch: Baruch Shub; sixthtorch: Jakob Zim.  During the ceremony, short videos of thetorchlighters’ testimonies - produced and directed by Shlomo Hazan -will be shown. 
Participants in the ceremony include musician Gali Atari and the AnkorChoir under the direction of Dafna Ben Yohanan, as well as the IDFParatroopers’ Honor Guard. Lior Ashkenazi will recite a piece.
   
The ceremony will be broadcast live on television on Channels 1, 2, 10and 33, and channel 9 in Russian, and by radio on Kol Israel and GaleiZahal.  It will last about one hour and a quarter.