Holocaust Remembrance Day: Never Again

More than any of the speeches given at Yad Vashem’s Warsaw Ghetto Square, the red berets of the IDF Paratroopers at the opening ceremony of Holocaust Memorial Day expressed the main message of the day: Never Again. All the symbols of the country’s leadership sat there on plastic chairs: The president, prime minister, government ministers. Behind them were Holocaust survivors and family members of righteous gentiles.

“The Holocaust proved once and for all: There is no replacement for a home of our own and the Israel Defense Forces,” said President Shimon Peres, “but even after the Holocaust there is still a regime whose leaders deny the Holocaust. The ayatollahs’ regime in Iran is dangerous to the entire world, not only to Israel.” Peres told the Holocaust survivors in the audience, “Israel is the realization of the dreams of 1.5 million children who were murdered before they had a chance to taste life. A classroom in Israel is what Janus Korchak dreamed of as he led his students to Treblinka. An ordinary Knesset debate is the realization of the dreams of freedom for millions of Jews whose citizenship was rescinded and rights trampled.”