Knesset set to hold annual Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony

Knesset to exhibit rare photos of Jewish life in Europe taken by Nazi soldiers during invasion of Poland, Soviet Union; PM, president to recite names of those who died in Holocaust.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Knesset Holocaust Remembrance Day Ceremony370 (photo credit: Screenshot)
Knesset Holocaust Remembrance Day Ceremony370
(photo credit: Screenshot)
The Knesset will hold its 25th annual “Every Man Has a Name” ceremony Monday, together with photo exhibits and documentary screenings in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day.
During the ceremony, named after the poem by Zelda, President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein and others will read names of those who perished in the Holocaust.
“Remembering the Holocaust is an important national goal, especially as the years go by,” Edelstein said. “The Knesset will hold as many activities and memorial events as it can.”
Six candles will be lit in memory of the six million who were killed. Two will be lit by Kathleen Schwartz and Yitzhak Livnat, Holocaust survivors who participated in the Knesset delegation to Auschwitz earlier this year.
Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch, whose parents were survivors, will light another candle. Dina Lavie, mother-in-law of MK Aliza Lavie (Yesh Atid), will light the third, followed by Esther Cohen, Bayit Yehudi MK Orit Struck’s mother, and Naomi Katz, mother-in-law of MK Dov Henin (Hadash).
All three women are Holocaust survivors.
The ceremony, which will be broadcast live on the Knesset Channel at 11 a.m., was planned in cooperation with Yad Vashem and the Diaspora Affairs Ministry.
Also Monday, the Knesset will display rare photographs taken by Wehrmacht soldiers during the invasion of eastern Poland and during Operation Barbarossa, when the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union.
Some of the photos depict the soldiers degrading Jews and have handwritten captions such as “Jewish criminals,” “blowing up a synagogue” and “dead Jews.”
Many of the photographs are the only remaining documentation of Jewish life in some of the small towns in Poland, such as Chelm and Kotzk.
The photo exhibit was prepared by Faith and the Holocaust Institute for Education, Documentation and Research.
On Sunday night, the Knesset Channel aired a documentary called Perlusha about survivor Pnina Segal’s visit to Auschwitz with the Knesset delegation in January, which was the first time she returned since she was a prisoner in the death camp.
The graphics used in the film are based on words carved on walls by children in Auschwitz.