Yom HaShoah
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Yom HaShoah (יום השואה yom hash-sho’āh), or Holocaust Remembrance Day, is a Jewish holiday that takes place on the 27th day of Nisan, in the Hebrew calendar. It is held every year in remembrance of the approximately six million Jews who died in the Holocaust. It is a national holiday in Israel.
It was originally proposed to be on the 15th of Nisan, the anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising (April 19, 1943), but this was objected to as being the first day of Passover. Instead, the 27th was chosen, being eight days before Yom Ha'atzma'ut, or Israeli Independence Day. Yom HaShoah was established by Israeli law in 1959, and was signed by David Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, then prime minister of Israel and president of Israel, respectively.
At 10:00am on Yom HaShoah, air-raid sirens sound for two minutes throughout Israel. Public transport (including virtually all highway vehicles) comes to a standstill for this period, and people stop and stand silent. During Yom HaShoah, much public entertainment and many public establishments in Israel are closed by law. Israeli television and radio channels transmit mourning songs and documentaries about the Holocaust, and no commercials. All flags on public buildings are flown at half mast.
Also during this day, tens of thousands of Israeli high-school students hold a memorial service in Auschwitz, in what became known as "The March of the Living", in defiance of the Holocaust Death Marches. This event is endorsed and subsidized by the Israeli Ministry of Education, and is considered an important part of the academic studies - a culmination of several months of studies on World War II and the Holocaust.
Yom HaShoah in the Gregorian calendar
Yom HaShoah is on 27th day of Nisan, but it varies from year to year in the Gregorian calendar:
See also
- Holocaust
- Genocide
- Holocaust Memorial Day — the annual Holocaust memorial in the United Kingdom
- Ani Maamin -- the Hymn of the Camps, often sung at Holocaust memorial services
External links
- Yom HaShoah from the Israeli Knesset (in English) (http://www.knesset.gov.il/shoah/eng/eshoah.htm)
- Yom HaShoah from the Israeli Knesset (in Hebrew) (http://www.knesset.gov.il/shoah/heb/shoah.htm)