Ceremonies held nationwide in memory of victims of Nazi persecution.
By JPOST.COM STAFFPM Yad Vashem (photo credit: 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 ChiefRabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, the chairman of Yad Vashem, will lead theannual 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 HolocaustRemembrance Day with a statement honoring the memory of "those whoendured the horrors" of the Nazi atrocities of World War II, theAssociated Press reported Sunday.Obama said the Holocaust calls on all people to renew their commitmentto prevent genocide and "to confront anti-Semitism and prejudice in allits forms."
