Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day 27-28 April 2022
Central Theme for Holocaust Remembrance Day: "Transports to Extinction: Deportations of the Jews During the Holocaust"
Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day will be observed this year starting Wednesday evening, 27 April 2022 through Thursday, 28 April 2022. The official State Opening Ceremony for Holocaust Remembrance Day will take place on Wednesday, 27 April, at 20:00, in Warsaw Ghetto Square, Yad Vashem, on the Mount of Remembrance in Jerusalem. Israel’s President H.E. Mr. Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister H.E. Mr. Naftali Bennett will both deliver remarks at the Opening Ceremony. Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council Rabbi Israel Meir Lau will kindle the Memorial Torch. Moshe Meron will speak on behalf of the survivors. This year, Holocaust survivor Beni Harel will recite El Maleh Rahamim, the Jewish prayer for the souls of the martyrs.
During the ceremony, Holocaust survivors will light six torches. First torch: Zvi Gill; second torch: Shmuel Blumenfeld z"l (the torch will be lit by his son Aryeh); third torch: Olga Kay; fourth torch: Arie Shilansky; fifth torch: Shaul Spielmann; sixth torch: Rebecca Elizur. During the ceremony, short videos about each of the torchlighters will be shown. Produced and directed by Shira Felix, these videos will be available on the Yad Vashem website in the section dedicated to Holocaust Remembrance Day 2022.
Israeli singers Ester Rada and Ron Buchnik, as well as the IDF Paratroopers’ Honor Guard, will participate in the ceremony, which will also include narrative pieces by Israeli actor Noa Koler. The MC for the ceremony will be Danny Cushmaro.
The ceremony will feature a traditional memorial service, including the recitation of a chapter from Psalms by Chief Rabbi of Israel Rabbi David Lau. The Rishon LeZion, Chief Rabbi of Israel Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef will recite the Kaddish mourner's prayer.
Yad Vashem will broadcast the State Opening Ceremony live with simultaneous translation into English, French, Spanish, German, Hebrew and Russian via its websites in their respective languages. Additionally, Yad Vashem will offer simultaneous translation in Arabic available on the Yad Vashem YouTube Channel in Arabic. The live feed will be accessible via Facebook (only live in English and Hebrew).
The State Opening Ceremony will also be broadcast live on Israeli television – Channels 11, 12, 13 and 9 as well as by Walla, N-12 and Y-Net, and via radio – Galei Tzahal and KAN Radio – and will last approximately 90 minutes.
Yad Vashem Online
Yad Vashem has created special mini-sites dedicated to Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day, containing information about the events and ceremonies taking place throughout the day. Also included in the mini-sites are relevant educational materials and a new online exhibition entitled, “Deportation of the Jews during the Holocaust – Stories of the Last Deportees, June 1944-April 1945.” In keeping with the policy of the "Final Solution," during World War II the Germans and their collaborators uprooted millions of Jews from their homes and deported them to their deaths. This meticulously organized operation was an event of historic significance, obliterating Jewish communities throughout German-occupied territories that had existed for centuries. Vast numbers of Jews were sent straight to the extermination sites, while many others were first taken to ghettos and transit camps. Thus, the cattle – or railway – car, the principal mode of Nazi deportation, became one of the most iconic symbols of the Holocaust. Originally a symbol of progress, globalization and human technological prowess during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the railway car warped into the emblem of the backsliding of human values into the abyss of wholesale mass murder on an unprecedented scale.
"Generations Light the Way"
Yad Vashem, Tzohar, "Zikaron BaSalon" and "Our Six Million" ("Shem VeNer") invite the public on the eve of Holocaust Remembance Day to take part in the "Generations Light the Way" initiative by lighting six memorial candles in memory of the six million victims of the Shoah and reciting the traditional mourner's prayer "El Maleh Rahamim" and/or the poem "Nizkor – Let us Remember" by Holocaust survivor Abba Kovner.
Join together with family, friends or neighbors in this new tradition of remembrance and pass the memory on from generation to generation.
Special Activities on the Mount of Remembrance
On Thursday 28 April, after the traditional wreath-laying ceremony in the morning, the public is invited to participate in a range of activities around the Yad Vashem campus, including the reading of Holocaust victims' names in the Hall of Remembrance, and exclusive "Behind-the-Scenes" presentations by a range of Yad Vashem experts.
For those interested in learning about the history of the Holocaust, Yad Vashem will be offering two English-language tours of the Holocaust History Museum on Holocaust Remembrance Day Thursday, 28 April 2022. The first tour will take place in at 1:15 pm Israel time. The second tour will be offered virtually for the international audience and will take place at 7pm EST. For more information contact Yad Vashem at www.yadvashem.org.
Ongoing Campaigns
Yad Vashem continues to call on the public to fill out Pages of Testimony to commemorate the names of Jews murdered during the Holocaust. Volunteers are available to help Holocaust survivors submit Pages of Testimony. Yad Vashem is also continuing its nationwide Gathering the Fragments campaign in an effort to rescue more Holocaust-related documents, artifacts, photographs and artworks, and interview, document and record video testimonies of survivors. For more information on all of these ongoing commemorative projects: +972-2-6443888 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
For more information on all of Yad Vashem's Holocaust Remembrance Day activities: www.yadvashem.org
Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, was established in 1953. Located in Jerusalem, it is dedicated to Holocaust commemoration, documentation, research and education.
www.yadvashem.org
The Wreath-Laying Ceremony on Thursday, 28 April 2022 will start promptly at 10:00 immediately following the siren.
The Yad Vashem Campus will be accessible to the public from 10:30 via free shuttle services departing from the Mt. Herzl Parking Lot until the hour of 20:00.
Holocaust Remembrance Day Schedule 28 April
10:00 Siren
10:02 Wreath-laying ceremony with the participation of Israel’s Deputy President, Prime Minister, Speaker of the Knesset, President of the Supreme Court, representatives of survivor and fighter organizations and delegations from throughout the country—Warsaw Ghetto Square
11:00–12:45 “Unto Every Person There is a Name” Recitation of Holocaust victims’ names by members of the public—Hall of Remembrance (a similar event will take place in the Knesset in the presence of the Speaker of the Knesset)
11:00-13:45 "Behind-the-Scenes" Throughout Holocaust Remembrance Day, special online lectures and behind-the-scenes tours will be open to the public. The gatherings will be in Hebrew and are free of charge. For the full listing and times please check the Yad Vashem website in the section on Behind-the-Scenes (available only in Hebrew).
13:15 Guided tour of the Holocaust History Museum focusing on this year's Central Theme: Deportations. For more information and to register: 02-6443802
13:00 Main memorial ceremony—Hall of Remembrance
17:30 Ceremony for youth movements in the presence of the Minister of Education Dr. Yifat Shasha Bitton, and hundreds of participants of the various national youth movements. Yad Vashem Chairman Dani Dayan will deliver remarks along with Holocaust survivor Chava Yotzker from Budapest, Hungary. Holocaust survivor Nachum Rotenberg, born 1928 in Lodz, Poland will light the Memorial Torch. Neta Rot will emcee the ceremony. The ceremony is conducted in cooperation with the Ministry of Education’s Youth and Social Administration and the Youth Movement Council — Valley of the Communities. Admission by personal invitation only
Remarks on Behalf of the Survivors
Moshe Meron :Moshe Herzog (later Meron) was born in 1935 in the Hungarian capital of Budapest, the eldest son of Tibor-Tuvia Herzog and Erzsebet-Miriam (née Menzel). His younger brother Shlomo was born three years later. Moshe's family lived with his maternal grandparents on the outskirts of Budapest, supported by their building supplies store.
In March 1944, the German Army entered Hungary. In April, the Jews were required to don a yellow star, and in May the deportations of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz began. In November 1944, all the Jews in Moshe's neighborhood were ordered to gather in one building. Miriam, whose husband had been drafted into the Hungarian forced labor battalions, understood the threat. She removed the yellow badges from their clothes and, under the cover of darkness, the three boarded a tram. They traveled to the sewing shop she was supposed to report at for forced labor, but found it deserted. The next day, still without their yellow stars, they passed through the checkpoints on the Danube Bridge and reached Tibor's camp, which was located in a paper factory. During that freezing night, they used paper as blankets. Moshe's grandparents were deported the next day, never to return.
Tibor managed to provide his family with protective passports that required them to live at a certain address in Budapest. Without knowing they would never see him again, Miriam and the two children went to the building, whose occupants were protected by Vatican City passports. There they lived with another 20 people in a three-room apartment in the "Little Ghetto" ("International Ghetto"), which had been established in the city. The ghetto housed approximately 15,000 Jews who held documents provided by embassies of neutral countries.
A week later, the Jews in Moshe's building were forced to march to a nearby square. On the way, a German officer separated the able-bodied from their loved ones. Miriam held tight to her terrified sons, even when threatened with a weapon. In the park, fascist Arrow Cross men rounded the Jews up on the pretext of checking documents. Hundreds stood waiting their turn. Learning from their experience, Miriam retreated to the last row with her children. There, she bribed a policeman with her gold necklace to escort them back to their building, which was now empty. The rest of the Jews in the square were shot, and their bodies thrown into the Danube.
Until the end of the war, Moshe, Miriam and Shlomo lived in fear and starvation. Miriam cooked for the rest of the ghetto residents in exchange for food. Tibor was taken to the Mauthausen concentration camp, where he died.
After the war, the family lived in European DP camps, and in 1949 they immigrated to Israel. Moshe joined Kibbutz Shamir, and began to grow cotton. He later earned a doctorate in Agricultural Science and initiated three startups. He continues his research until today. Moshe and Tova have four children and eleven grandchildren.
Beni Harel :Behor Dadosh (later Beni Harel) was born in 1936 in Tripoli, Libya to Yosef and Rachel Dadosh. He had a younger brother and sister, Moshe and Wassina. His father was a trader and his mother a housewife.
In February 1941, the Germans entered Tripoli to reinforce the Italian army and lead the war. During the British bombing, the townspeople hid beneath the city wall. Yosef told Rachel not to flee there, lest she be persecuted by their Arab neighbors. Jewish men were rounded up and sent to forced labor camps in the desert, including Jado. Men who hid and were discovered were thrown from the rooftops. Yosef was also captured, but managed to escape.
One Friday evening in April 1941, during Shabbat candle-lighting, the family home was bombed. Beni's brother and sister were killed; he and his mother were injured. They were evacuated in a donkey cart to the village of Amrus outside Tripoli, and hidden from the Germans in a goat pen. Beni's grandfather Moshe and grandmother Masuda sent his maternal aunt Leah (Laura), to help them, and she managed to move them to the village of Zawia, where they were housed in a stable.
During one of the bombings, the stable was hit. Rachel burned to death before Beni's eyes. Leah was hit in the neck. His grandfather, an observant Jew, wished to give his daughter Rachel a Jewish burial in Tripoli, but no bodies were allowed to be brought in to the city. The grandfather rented a fancy carriage and drove to Zawia. There he dressed his dead daughter in a shroud with a wedding dress over the top. They rode to Tripoli with Beni's grandmother holding her daughter's body on one side and five-year-old Beni holding her body on the other, weeping bitterly. Thus, her body was smuggled to Tripoli and buried in a Jewish burial ground.
Beni stayed at his grandparent's house in Tripoli. Meanwhile, the Germans continued to search for Yosef. They arrived at the house, put a gun to the grandmother's head and threatened to kill her if she did not betray her son-in-law. They also threatened Beni. So, the next time they came looking for Yosef, Beni's grandmother hid Beni in a rolled-up mat. "She told me not to cry, not to breathe, not to cough," he said. They used this method every time the Germans came.
With the German surrender in Tripoli in January 1943 and the return of the British Army, Yosef returned to the city. Beni's grandfather wanted to take care of his grandson, the only son who had survived his eldest daughter. He married Yosef to 16-year-old Leah. The couple had 13 children.
In 1949, after the Arab riots against Jews living in Libya, the family immigrated to Israel and settled in Jerusalem. Beni worked in porterage, and then in construction. He helped build the Jerusalem's Israel Museum, Knesset, President's Residence, International Convention Center and the Hebrew University campus in Givat Ram. He was the gabbai (beadle) of a synagogue for thirty years, and initiated the construction of a hall in the synagogue named after his mother and aunt, Rachel and Leah. Beni and Jacqueline have four children and 15 grandchildren.
