 Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Israel's President Isaac Herzog and well as also the personal stories of those Holocaust survivors who were chosen this year to light the torches of remembrance. Today's Holocaust Memorial Day comes amidst concerns, global concerns about a rise in anti-Semitism and also about the fate of the dwindling number of survivors, especially those we have lost in recent years to coronavirus and other natural causes. With me in studio is Avi Paznea, the former Israeli Ambassador to France in Italy and himself in a way a Holocaust survivor. I'll explain that in a minute. And Professor Giselle Dax from the European Forum and the Center for German Studies at Hebrew University. And Giselle I want to start with you because as I mentioned just reports coming out from both the Anti-Defamation League in the United States and Tel Aviv University pointing again to a worrying surge in anti-Semitism over a number of factors in recent years. But unfortunately all the efforts trying to contain it, it seems this is a wave that just keeps coming. Well I think one of the main numbers that are rising are really due to the new technologies. I mean social media, media, the possibility to spread hatred in an anti-Semitism in an easier way. It's a question also to measure, I mean when you speak to the Jewish communities themselves they have a definite feeling of threat, of an increased threat. But then very often the question is what kind of threat is it, did you hear about something, did you experience it very often, that's a little bit different. But I think this basic feeling of insecurity that has risen tremendously and this perception is very important. Right, I'm just going to point out we're getting live, those are live images from Yad Vashem we just saw, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Israel's President Isaac Herzog take their seats. We'll bring you the ceremony as it starts live. But first Mr. Ambassador to Avi, I mentioned before you as a child, as almost an infant, managed to escape from Poland with your parents really on one of the last trains to there before they escaped. Absolutely Kalev, it was five weeks before the war I had very smart parents who saw it coming and a few weeks before the war we were living in Danzig which the famous corridor that Hitler wanted and this was the cause of the war but a few weeks before the war my parents got on the train, went to Switzerland, my father was a visa student, my mother which was born Swiss from three generations was denied a visa because she was Jewish and was married to a Polish man and when we got to Switzerland two policemen came on the train like they do until today in Europe, went along the aisle, asked for the passports, my father presented his passport with the visa, they came to my mother, she pinched me on my behind excuse me and I started screaming and my mother addressed the policeman in Swiss German saying look what a stupid child, he does not realize that you are coming back home and he didn't look at the passport and this is how we enter Switzerland Saved by a pinch, let's go now to the ceremony at Yad Vashem the chairman of the Yad Vashem council to light the remembrance torch Wait a second, the sign will come out, the sign will come out, the sign will come out the sign will come out, the sign will come out You may be seated Holocaust martyrs and heroes remembrance day 2022 is titled transports to extinction the deportation of the Jews during the Holocaust and the picture in front of you you can see Jews being deported from Skopje, Macedonia to the Treblinka death camp on March 1943 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 from there this meticulously organized operation was an event of historic significance obliterating Jewish communities throughout German occupied territory that had existed for centuries thus the railway car, originally a symbol of progress, globalization and human technological prowess warped into the emblem of the backsliding of human values into the abyss of wholesale mass murder on an unprecedented scale more than half of the Jews murdered in the Holocaust were brought to their deaths through the elaborate deportation system which used mainly trains but also enlisted trucks, ships and wagons and sometimes forced the deportees to march on food the deportations were conducted in a brutal manner and many were murdered during and because of these deportations every day thousands of Jews were crammed into cattle cars making their way to the death camps the journey would last several hours and sometimes days the overcrowding in the cars was unbearable the feeling of suffocation, overwhelming, growing hunger and thirst magnified the anguish these deportations tore entire families apart oftentimes parents, siblings, children and friends were left behind inside the cattle cars Jews tried in different ways to convey their situation and feelings to loved ones left behind and wrote them letters on scraps of paper they found there were those who survived the jump but many others died in the process or were denounced to the Germans by locals the shock that accompanied the stages of deportation the roundup and the time inside the cars lingered after the deportees arrival at the extermination camps the deportations ripped the deportees from the human world as they knew it and separated them from it irrevocably president of the state of Israel, Mr. Itzhak Herzog there are moments in which one black and white photo tells the whole story reverberates all of the words I am standing here before you as I carry with me etched in my heart such a photo a rare picture that anyone who has seen it will never be able to forget the eyes see it, the brain perceives it but the soul does not want to believe it that the black and white is actually darker than black it is not a picture of the big numbers, the thousands, the tens of thousands, the millions it is a photo of one family, a Jewish family a family executed by the Nazi satanic henchmen and their collaborators a mother and her son at the edge of the pit the barrels of the rifles touching her back you cannot see the face of the woman nor the faces of her children a moment before her body collapses into the pit of death she bends down towards her young children and in one moment all the rifles emit smoke they shoot her together, they do not suffice with one bullet they are coordinated, efficient one child falls beneath her with whatever power she has left in her the mother holds the hand of her young son who is sitting barefoot on his knees on the blood drenched land what did the mother whisper to her little son did she tell him not to cry and the boy, did he cry, did he keep quiet did he understand, was he afraid the picture is silent but its voice cries out shocking, mesmerizing thou shalt not kill lay not thine hand upon the lad you may take the young but be sure to let the mother go do not slaughter a cow or a ship and its young on the same day the photo was taken on October 13, 1941 when I saw it in Wendy Lauer's book a book that was all about this picture focusing only on it I felt my entire being overcome with sadness and pain these atrocities occurred in so many towns and villages more than we can count and in all of them the sun shined over the valley birds chirped the forest was quiet and the slayer slew and slew and slew distinguished audience Holocaust survivors the heroes of the resurrection family members of different generations Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and his wife, speaker of the Knesset member of Knesset Miki Levy and his wife, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Justice Esther Chayut and her husband Chair of the opposition Benjamin Netanyahu Chair of Yad Vashem Council Rav Israel Mayor Laushelita the Chair of Yad Vashem Danny Dayan the President of the Bundestag Mrs. Barbel Bass Ministers, Knesset members Chief Rabbis Heads of the Security Establishment Chairwoman of the Center of Organizations for Holocaust Survivors Ms. Colette Avital Ambassador guest representatives from all over the world and from Israel Citizens of the State of Israel Throughout the European Holocaust Jewish European Holocaust Girls, women, the elderly and men were led to the pits of death and slaughtered like the mother and her young son they didn't leave behind them a name or anything to be remembered by like wheat shift falling behind the harvester the Jews fell into the pit and there was no one to collect them the massive killing of the Jewish people humanity's darkest hours started like this and what was later called the Holocaust in bullets afterwards the Nazi beast that could not be satiated accelerated the extermination processes until it reached a monstrous scale millions of our people were tortured murdered, massacred by the most horrific machine of evil known to mankind brothers and sisters three years after the gates of camps opened up Holocaust survivors became the heroes of the resurrection a miracle, role models and a symbol the state of the Jews was established like a beacon expressing the triumph of light over darkness promising that a Jewish child will never have to hide in a dark and isolated cellar from those who seek to kill him parents will never be torn from their children and set on their last journey only because they were Jews and never ever will despicable murders stand behind a Jewish family shoot them and throw them into the valley of the shadow of death the Jewish response to history is to remember not just a scientific and sterile memory not just archival documentation but first and foremost as the basis a profound and existential memory that awards the history meaning one that is reflected in everything we do helps us grow builds us as a nation makes us better and more worthy beloved Holocaust survivors your memory is our memory and the task of imparting it is a task we all share it is our duty to teach the lessons of the Holocaust and pass them on from generation to generation we have no hope and we have no justification as a nation and as a state if we do not remember forever what has happened to our people in the ghettos in the cellars of the Gestapo in the killing pits in the death trains in the extermination camps in the crematoriums and in all the places where there was no expression of humanity and where there was no trace of compassion but along with that we must prove first and foremost to ourselves that it is not only history that unites us as a people it is our common future that serves as a solid basis for deepening our connections no less than our past we must continue and build our nation so that it will thrive grow and rise to any and every challenge we must act in a cohesive and determined fashion as we face the terrorism and hatred led by organizations and countries against us and fortify Israel's power like an iron wall in defense of our enemies doubting Israel's right to exist is not legitimate diplomacy but outright anti-Semitism that must be uprooted we must continue and fight the ugly manifestations of anti-Semitism that is rearing its head in so many places all over the world as well as in social media we must make it clear that even today eight decades from the darkest abyss in human history anti-Semitism that threatens our people is a crime against humanity beloved holocaust survivors even if less and less of you are active and alive today our commitment to you is ever stronger and must be seen and heard from one end of the world to the next you are the pillar of fire before the camp you are an inspiration for us all you make us believe that our path is the right one and encourage us to proceed forward citizens of Israel I opened my remarks this evening with a picture and I am ending it with one as well a photo that also reverberates all of the words on my desk in the office of the president of the state of Israel there is merely one and only photo that touches anyone who sees it to the core of their being anyone who has ever seen this picture can never forget it at the center of the photo you see Dora Dryblatt Eisenberg a blessed memory born in Lodz a prisoner number 55374 from Birkenau Auschwitz and with her her great-granddaughter Daniella Hartzvi here as well you cannot see the woman's face nor can you see the face of the great-granddaughter the great-granddaughter's hand is resting on her great-grandmother's hand their hands are placed on the Israeli flag this picture taken by Aaron Gillerman tells the entire story in the clearest of ways the story of the Jewish people and its revival the story of this country and how it was settled the story of the chain of generations and the story of the state of Israel which is the most profound our beloved country which is the most profound expression of Ezekiel the prophet's vision of the tri bones will open your graves and cause you to come out of your graves and bring you into the land of Israel and shall put my spirit in you and ye shall live and I shall place you in your own land O land do not cover their blood may the memory of our brothers and sisters the victims of the holocaust be etched in the heart of the nation from generation to generation and until all eternity Yes, we're now going to be there'll be a brief interlude of a song it's the song Under Your White Stars the text was actually written by the great Yiddish poet Avram Sootskeva in the Vilna Ghetto in 1943 later put to music here in Israel popularized by a singer Habab Alba Stein Israel Ethiopian singer Esther Rada singing now Ambassador Avi Pesner President Herzog making specific reference to the fact that many of the survivors I'll just give a number over 15 and a half thousand died just in the past year in Israel there's now about 161 thousand left but that number dwindling even those who are just young people even now during the holocaust putting more of a burden to carry on the memory on the next generation Absolutely there are 160 thousand dwindling at a rate of 15-20 thousand a year I imagine that 10 years from now there will be very few left and it is our duty and the duty of the Jewish people to take upon ourselves the remembrance of what happened we cannot only leave it to those who survived to tell their story we, like we tell the story of the exodus of Egypt for 3 thousand years we have to tell the story of what happened during this awful year of the Shoah in Europe this has to pass from generation to generation to generation never to be forgotten by our people to always serve a lesson that we were the victim of the most raw, cruel anti-Semitism that ever existed and that we have to do whatever we can, whatever it takes so that anti-Semitism never is here again by the way I'm sorry to say that the latest statistic from the western world from America suggests that there is a rise of anti-Semitism for our duty and the duty of our next generation of my children, of my grandchildren to carry this torch of memory, of remembrance and to teach what happened and to try to prevent it from happening it all over again right, and Gisela the president picking up on the point you made the role of social media for example and accelerating this wave anti-Semitism briefly you also touched on attacks on Israel anti-Semitism which is a growing phenomenon well I think what's important here also for abroad also to understand that the Shoah doesn't start with the guest chambers it starts a long time before with anti-Semitism in small things and I think one of the challenges is that if you speak to non-Jewish Europeans they might not even be able to identify what is anti-Semitism they would say well in my environment it doesn't exist and then when you go closer and you ask there is a conscious net that has to be sometimes only be awakened let's listen to Prime Minister Bennett now speak of Yad Vashem the Supreme Court judge and her husband David chairman of the opposition member of Knesset Benjamin Netanyahu chairman of the Yad Vashem Council Rabbi Israel Meir Lau chairman of Yad Vashem Mr. Danny Dayan the president of the Bundestag Mrs. Barbel Bas government ministers Knesset members chief rabbis heads of the defense establishment chairman of the center organizations for holocaust survivors in Israel Ms. Colette Avital holocaust survivors and their families My mother My mother My mother citizens of the state of Israel distinguished guests I am holding a page of testimony for the sake of the younger generation I will explain that a page of testimony is an official form of Yad Vashem that describes the basic details of an individual Jew who was murdered in the holocaust when that Jew was born what was his or her profession the names of the parents and family and how he or she were murdered these pages of testimony were filled over the decades by family members or friends who could reliably and accurately describe the details of that Jew who perished in the holocaust I would like to read to you the details of this page of testimony last name of the murdered woman Reich first name blank missing place of birth Auschwitz place of death Auschwitz description of the circumstances of the death taken from her mother in Auschwitz the details of the person who filled the form mother Irene Reich age at death half an hour brothers and sisters the holocaust is an unprecedented event in human history I am stating this fact because as the years go by we hear some people in the world comparing other difficult events to the holocaust but no even the most difficult wars today are not the holocaust and are nothing like the holocaust no event in history cruel as it may be comes close to the extermination of European Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators history unfortunately is rife with tough wars brutal murders genocide but it is usually a means designed to achieve a goal some kind of purpose military, political, economic, religious the case of the extermination of the Jews is different never at no other place and at no other time has one nation acted to exterminate another in such a premeditated industrial way out of pure ideology and not out of utilitarianism the Nazis killed the Jews not to seize their place of work or their homes the Nazis also sought to reach each and every Jew and exterminate them to the last of them a Jew in the holocaust had no way to escape not by surrendering not by expulsion not by conversion or changing their behavior there was nothing they could do because the reason you were exterminated was because you were a Jew regardless of what you did the Germans spared no effort to carry out their mission for example in April 1944 a special Gestapo team was sent to the French Alps to remote hiking trails just to capture and murder 20 Jewish children the youngest of whom was 4 years old so much energy just to kill a few Jewish children at the end of the war the Nazis prefer to concentrate on the extermination of Jews even when it robbed them of energy and resources critical to the war efforts what brought them to this why the holocaust is the ultimate absolute expression of thousands of years of anti-semitism but why is there anti-semitism how is it that over 3,500 years ago Faro decided to exterminate all the Hebrew males and a thousand years later Haman wanted to exterminate all the Jews and why did Britain expel and kill its Jews 700 years ago and 500 years ago spaint it the same and 350 years ago in Yemen as well what is the motivation what is the reason for all these events the answer is that there is none there is no reason for anti-semitism hatred of Jews is an emotion that is easy to manipulate and ignite these are the darkest elements in the human psyche which sometimes erupt in the form of blind hatred for the other that if only that other disappears all my problems will be solved in each of its manifestations anti-semitism takes a different form it always seemingly finds a different reason once we are slaughtered because we the Jews have different customs a bit different the Kashrut laws, Shabbat prayers which led many Jews to try and assimilate into the Gentiles but then the anti-semites attack the Jews precisely because they were assimilating into the environment the Jews are successful that's the reason for anti-semitism the Jews are backwards and poor the Jews are a landless people cut off from their land for generations there's a reason to hate them the Jews are establishing a successful and strong country that's another reason to hate them whenever we are tempted to believe that we have entered a new liberal modern era in which people no longer hold on to their hatred of the Jews reality awakens us to the truth so what lesson do we learn from this what should we do my answer is clear what we must do is stand on our feet to be responsible for our faith to rely only on ourselves to be strong and to never apologize for our existence or our success we have built a strong and prosperous Jewish state here in the land of Israel and this is the goal we have no choice but to meet the state of Israel must be the strongest always to be with the strongest army with the best quality air force with the bravest combatants with the most sophisticated Mossad and Shabbat and above all with the deepest faith in the righteousness of our ways the state of Israel strong we are building bridges to new and old friends deepening alliances but alongside our friends and allies near and afar we must remember a basic truth we will exist here in our country only if we deepen our roots in this land of ours the Holocaust occurred after a little less than 2000 years of exile of our people the Jewish people are like a plant that's connected to a particular land it's true yes the plant may exist and somehow survive in another kind of soil but in order to flourish and thrive it must connect to its own soil the Jewish people can somehow exist and live in the diaspora and dream of Jerusalem but at the end of the day the natural existence of our people the real one can only take place in the physical home in our original home here in the land of Israel building this home is a duty but it is also a great privilege for us all this ceremony this evening opens the events of the Holocaust Remembrance Day and it also marks the birth of three very special weeks the three weeks of resurrection they begin on Passover which marks the birth of our people of our nation and these three weeks continue next week on Remembrance Day for the fallen soldiers in the Israel armed forces and wars and ending on the Independence Day of the State of Israel Jewish existence began almost 4000 years ago on this land and every act here in the land of Israel in the State of Israel is an act of building and triumph every house that is built every baby that is born every company that is founded every step that we take in the streams of this country every strong that is written every act of kindness done between people is a brick in this land of Israel the building of the State of Israel the Jewish State in the land of Israel that is the victory in triumph over those who sought to destroy and exterminate us let us all hold tightly to this country to this land of ours and one last point and it's very important these days the Warsaw ghetto uprising considered the pinnacle of Jewish heroism it was an impossible battle of a few Jews against many Germans we all grew up on this legacy what is often less told is the tragic fact that we fought against the Germans not as one body but as two competing Jewish organizations which did not cooperate with each other Haetzi the Jewish military organization belonging to the revisionist the Yergunah Yudi which we call today the right and Eyal the Jewish fighting organization which belong to the socialist faction to the left yes brothers and sisters even in the darkest days of Jewish history in the midst of the inferno of annihilation we fought in the right failed to cooperate each group fought alone against the Germans and I try to understand what ideological gap was so important that it could separate two groups of Jews who fought in such a desperate and heroic battle what internal animosity could have justified such a split brothers and sisters brothers and sisters we must not we simply must not allow that dangerous gene of strife and factionalism to dismantle the people of Israel the Jews from within today in the state of Israel we have one army one government one nation the whole of Israel when we are united no external enemy can beat us brothers and sisters I am going back to that page of testimony may the soul of that Jewish baby who perished even before she was given a name together with six million of our brothers and sisters who were murdered at the Holocaust may her soul be bundled in the bundle of life and we just heard Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett speak at the Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony at Yad Vashem they will now be a musical interlude the song between the sacred and profane sung by Ron Buchnik Gisela I want to focus first on the first part of the speech in which Prime Minister Bennett spoke about the historical uniqueness of the Holocaust even though it wasn't explicit it seemed to me he was referencing the fact that the conflict in Ukraine has brought up many Holocaust comparisons some made even by President Zelensky of Ukraine which is real including Prime Minister Bennett himself had sort of taken issue with and it seemed like that was a reference there but I think he made another reference where people talk more about other genocides and I think on the one hand it's you can also say it's a good thing that you have European countries examining their own colonelistic past and check it out and then the question comes up how much can you compare so first of all you can always compare but you also have to see the differences and I think one of the one of the best descriptions of the Holocaust that I know called it a breach of civilization which was unheard of until then and I think these standards so called are just very difficult to be reached by anything else that is around there so whether you call it uniqueness or not and I think there is in academia it's you can compare this is what you do when you study things but you also have to look why people want to compare and find similarities what the aim is behind and then it becomes really interesting because then you see that in fact very often the aim behind is to make Jewish victimhood smaller in order to attack better Israel so it is a political aim very often behind these efforts and it's not really a question of how you put things looking where they are like an aim behind that goes beyond that that you can then feel because very often very quickly one arrives at Israel and the questioning of legitimization of Jewish peoplehood in a state and it's all linked together so I think that's a big field that also Prime Minister Bennett addressed it from the side now to the closing part of his remarks no coincidence that as Prime Minister Bennett was speaking about the political factionalism within the Warsaw ghetto the director of that broadcast from Yad Vashem cut to a shot of opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu clearly that was a reference to the current political situation here if there is one thing we should learn from the Holocaust is that we are alone in the world and we cannot afford that kind of division that you see today for example the political divisions that you see today for example you look what's going on in the Knesset how people how Jews speak to one another this should not be I mean we should be remembered we should be remembered we are one people who suffered enormously we are a tiny people we have to be united I think that this was the message Bennett it's true he has his policies and he has his interests but he was right on saying that we have to be united we cannot afford this petty discussions that we have in this ugly manner that they are being conducted we have to pull ourselves together and to show a united front we have so many problems we have enemies we have to be one this is also one of the lessons of the Holocaust and I think that Prime Minister Bennett was right in pointing out that this unity of the Jewish people is important for our future let's go back to the ceremony now the torch lighting segment of the ceremony is to begin shortly the state of Israel and became key partners in the preservation of the memory of the Holocaust and the future generations the lighters of the six torches will be accompanied by their family members the first torch will be lit by Tzvi Gil born in Zdunska, Poland in the center of Poland to the family of the Jewish people we were invited to the ceremony to the National Assembly tomorrow we will be invited to the ceremony and we were invited to the ceremony but in the world we did not stay at our home and in Shfilil the house was destroyed the house was destroyed in August 1942 the ghetto was destroyed we were invited to the home of the Jewish people and there was the first selection the flag it passed to the other side in the corners it passed to the flag in his name and it did not fall between this flag my parents, my father, my brother and whoever gave this flag to the ghetto people who were with me and me the ghetto people who were something special one side there was no ceremony there was no action but from a different point of view there was only one and that was the activity of the National Assembly in the National Assembly we invited to the land of God to our birth of the Zionist people and everything but as soon as we got out the initiative was written to us as you saw the steps that were taken along the way I was invited to the ceremony thank God we were invited to the ceremony and I knew that the Germans if they were invited to the ceremony there was only one and in the end it was a disaster everything was a disaster and as soon as there was an event I said to myself that I was going to the ceremony so it was a disaster I was invited to the ceremony and in the morning I came to the ceremony between the volunteers on the first day of the ceremony I had 5,000 volunteers I was a part of the organization of the State of Israel there could not be another event from this event I was invited to the ceremony with a big and spiritual and spiritual group what we had to do to ensure that this ceremony would not be different Let the torch be lit the second torch was supposed to be lit by Samuel Bloemmensfeld born in Krakow, Poland sadly Shmuel passed away two weeks ago and was not able to reach this meaningful moment his son, Arya Bloemmensfeld will light the torch on his behalf we worked together for two weeks and saw what we were going to do how to make a ceremony for the 10 people I made my decision I said I would like to lead the Jewish people to death I want to be together with my family and they came today and I settled with the priest the priest I had a feeling what I would say to my mother that they are going to die this was the last time that I saw my family we went to Auschwitz we started to make a selection we were invited to do things to light the torch to make the ceremony when I made my daughter she told me I have 100 and 8 and she told me it will be 18 so I said the most difficult was from 100 km in the village in the village I know 15-18 to go to Auschwitz there were a lot a lot I took 33 km I was a physicist I was a physicist but I went back I went back I went back and I asked the priest and I said what are you going to do you see I went back to Auschwitz your people didn't say anything there were a lot of people and we we invited the Jewish people and we live in our homeland that in the Israeli world the world the torch will be lit from the name of God from the name of God the third torch will be lit by Olga Key from the cheek family born in the town of Ufaherto, Hungary I come from a family of 10 children my parents were just the most wonderful people it was Pesach Shabbos night they started together the Jewish family our turn was on Tuesday morning we were taken to a cattle train nothing to sit down we didn't get any food for three days we didn't know anything what's going on we did not know where we are going when we arrived to Auschwitz I wanted to take a pair of stocking something some clothing with me when we were as we were getting off and my father told me my dear you don't need that anymore I got off the train first my father was separated my youngest sister and I were and were taken to Lagersee we were asked to take off all our clothes we told the German men around and then they cut off our hair and from everywhere my mother and my sister and two grand children they were sent to the gas chamber they were thought for me to say do I have to that was the worst place pile of dead people we were hardly getting any food my younger sister became in terrible condition we were so sick already everybody had diarrhea we could hardly walk we were so dirty the field was just unreal, unbelievable they took the very sick ones took also my little sister downstairs then one day when I went on I thought she was sleeping and I wanted to cover her and the girls around her in the room said you don't need to cover her I must have my story was the world is trying to deny it no matter how hard it is I just have to tell let the torch be lit the name will be lit the 4th torch will be lit by Arya Shilanski born in Shavli Lithuania we know that the torch is for the house of the head of the Frankl it opens and they don't let it pass and we had to go to the house of the head to the house of the head after knowing that the house of the head is the drama of the children's house children are breaking it in all of them they are raising children and bringing them to the mass when women came back to tell them that they know what happened they started to raise themselves the people were standing and the head and the voice that I can't remember that day when the church opened the doors we saw signs of SS people in the middle of the church they ran to the streets with the torch to break the church was very difficult the walls of the church were covered with the smoke of the mass 24 hours a day we the leaders we realized that the one who made the work had the right to stay we started to go to the house there were all the names we went to there were also names as a reason not to bring them to the church one day in 1945 he brought us to a place between two cities they told me to go to the church that we arrived in the morning we saw that the SS people knew our freedom I was going to to the country I was going to go to the church I was going to build a family children children and I remember to say to the world never again and the people of Israel let the torch be lit the first torch will be lit by Saul Spielemann born in Vienna, Austria 8 years later they broke our house two pieces of wood one piece of wood my father said Jewish, you have two or three pieces of wood the money if you don't make money I will see your son and you will have the power that we will have just to make money and then the Nazis started to rule to save, to save Jews and the rest they broke the walls of the church they also broke the walls of Jews they also saw the sky with the soldiers as well as the church houses that we had in the evening we went home and stayed in the streets the rule was more to keep the church in the morning after the war ended in the summer in Auschwitz they opened the streets the SS, the police the police all the time we went to the streets and only a few people were left so we the young people we managed to escape but the Nazis when they broke the walls and the others who were after them broke the people who were left on the ramp they broke the walls it was obvious that they opened the windows people were dead there in my mother's house in the kitchen and the stove I saw that they made it from the block to a church that was called the church church I wanted to see my mother so I went to the church because it was a church it was a church I went to the place and one day I came in the morning I saw that she was wearing her dress and she was wearing these clothes and she sat on the toilet I didn't know if I would even be able to go to the war because my clinic was on the street in itself in the middle of the street in the middle of the street 30 people I said I didn't care if I would be able to go to the church the church the ramp on my side when I left the church and I came to this country I got a family and I stayed with my family let the torch be lit the sixth torch will be lit by Rivka Elitso from the Lissauer family born in Amsterdam the Netherlands we lived in Amsterdam until the war my brother's mother and I he told me I will kill you and remember my name because I don't have a father and I don't have children and I will not pass the war so after that who will remember me and my mother but when I kill the torch I say I will remember you and I will not die so after that they brought us to Bergen-Belsen we were in a not a church a church a church together in a place to live in Bergen-Belsen we were in three places and we went to throw the stones and I saw my mother and she was sitting in a tent she said to me don't leave me my mother was a Deluxe she took me and my brother when the war started we went back home and each one of us accepted and we went to the church and that was a huge achievement because it saved us in order to reach this great thing hours and hours and hours we were allowed to stay in the church even if it was and I learned with my mother at the time we couldn't speak because she was from a local salon and she was in a a model a model a model that's how we started in our own lives after I said I was in Aali when I met two girls nine brothers five sisters and one on the way Let the torch be lit. The sun will rise. The sun will rise. The sun will rise. The moon will rise. Dr. Moshe Meron, born in Budapest. Incredibly moving stories. We just heard there from this year's torch lighters. Abe, I want to ask you, in light of what you told us before, just how close you and your parents came to joining that number. Just your reaction to hearing these incredible stories. You know, Caleb, I heard the stories and I thought every one of these stories could have been our story and was the story of my larger family because my father had four brothers and four sisters. All were married. All had children. All of them and my grandmother were murdered in the Shoah. So, you know, I so much identified with each one of them. I felt so close to what they were saying. So I was personally lucky to escape, but I'm trying to look at the broader picture. You know, six millions of our brothers and sisters were exterminated. But today in Israel, we are more than six millions. We have a state. We are strong. So I thought it's true, six million were murdered, but we won the war. We are here. We have our state. We are independent. Today we can defend ourselves, unlike in those days. So we won. The Nazis lost. They are not here anymore. They have disappeared. We are here. We won in spite of everything. And I think this is the lesson all of us should understand from this ceremony, this year after year ceremony, let's keep close together. Let's defend our state. Let's defend what is so precious to us so that we will never have to witness not we and not our children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren never have to witness such a danger and such a situation. We have won. Let's be proud of what we have achieved and let remember with much, much love, respect those who are not here anymore and who have perished in this period. I do have to note though, Avi, also watching though you understand in one way the Nazis unfortunately did win and that was the destruction of European Jewry. I just traveled through a lot of southern Europe in place after place. I was, for example, just in Rhodes where there was a Jewish community that lasted thousands of years, wiped out basically by the Holocaust. The synagogue is in so many places in Europe now just a museum where there was a neighborhood, there was a memorial. And that was just the image. You know, Kaleb, the Nazi, the Wannsee Conference in 1942, in January 1942 wanted to find the final solution to the Jewish problem. In translation it means to exterminate all the Jews, all of them. So regretfully they succeeded in killing six millions in destroying the whole Jewish life in Europe but they could not destroy the Jewish people. We are here. We are still here. I think we have won the day because the Nazis could not achieve what they wanted to achieve and I know something personally about it because my late father, Dr. Chaim Pazner, who became a Zionist activist in Switzerland when we were there he got the first information of the Wannsee Conference. He got it only six months later, transmitted it to Ben-Gurion who tried to tell Ruth Wett and Churchill about this horrible finding. Nobody believed. Nobody would believe that such a thing is possible that they would try to destroy massively, industrially, the whole people. So they succeeded in part but they lost. They lost and we won at the end of the day. I'll be speaking movingly about Israel. You're an expert in German history and the Holocaust in Europe. What about in Europe today? Have they learned or taken after so many years from the Holocaust? Has there been a true reckoning with it? I think the main difference is when you hear these stories in Israel it's family history, the Holocaust. It's not something abstract and a collective memory that is done there. And in Germany there are also services about that that as much as young people, if they know how they know about the Holocaust they would also be tremendously touched by these films but they would not go and make a connection to their own families on the perpetrator side. So it's something that is very far away from their own story in a sense. So there the question is really how to... I mean also you have these stumble stones in many, many cities, really people which are pretty contested because they also say it's not good to walk on stones where the names of murdered Jews are written, whether it's a good idea or not. You can say memory is a lot there. The question is then these are dead Jews and still many people would say, well I've never met anybody. So it's... On the other hand I think following your line that the German head of parliament was for the first time officially present at such a ceremony says something about Israeli sovereignty that it's so far that one cannot force. We keep the torch lighted. The torch of the Jewish people. It's a presence there. Thank you very much for joining us this evening. Thank you so much for sharing. Professor Dax, please stay with us. Let's go back now to the ceremony where actress North Nick Taylor is reading testimony from the Holocaust. A policeman explained that a new announcement had come out by 10 a.m. All Jews remaining in the ghetto must leave their apartments and go to concentration areas. This caused abysmal anxiety. We knew and felt that this was our end. To hide? Where? It's one thing to hide for an hour or two but it was an entirely different matter to hide for an unknown period of time. What to do? The norms were frayed and tense. My parents were standing in the stairway. We asked, what did you decide? Are we going or staying and hiding? We're going, Dad says. Maybe we can somehow be saved because it's impossible to stay here. I do not believe it was possible for us to be saved but I keep silent. The worst thing is that we have to part. I look at Dad, Mom, my sister. This is the end. This is the last time we're going to see each other. Mom packs her warmest shawl in my backpack. She turns her face away so I won't see her crying. And I pack the shawl back in her bundle but a moment later, a terrible thought sticks in my mind. Will we still need this shawl? One last farewell. I look once more at my parents and little sister. We cannot part from each other. Along the street, crowds of people of all ages who are sentenced to death are moving along. Their faces revealing the fear of death moving slowly dragging their feet. Entire families laden with bundles parked on the sidewalks and the doorways and the yards. The selection takes place at the corner of Mila and Zamenov streets. I try to look healthy, young, to give the impression of a strong worker. The beast takes a look at my face, glancing at the number hanging on my coat. My heart faints inside me, my head held high, but I feel all the blood flowing out of my body. We're moving. Every few steps, various objects are thrown away, torn bedsheets, pillows, slippers, puddles of blood. It all testifies to what happened here and to the way they treated those who decided not to go to the quarantine area and stayed in their hiding places. Everyone is crying. We do not realize yet that our lives have been saved. Everyone thinks of their loved ones. Where are they? Did they survive? Everyone, everyone was gone. I was left completely alone. Fate united us over the past few months and every unfamiliar Jew I see a brother and I feel like a sister to them all. None of us have personal problems. The only problems that exist are the problems of Jews. At the last minute during the war, Sogetto uprising, Mira and her father fled to the Aryan side and joined her mother and sister. The Pijit family wandered between different hiding places and managed to survive until their liberation. Then they learned that most of their family had perished. After the war, Mira married Abraham Flint and in 1948 they made Aliyah and their son and daughter were born here in Israel. Mira's family members are here with us this evening. It's called Intolud here. It's ceremony news. It's conclusion. Still with me, Professor Gisela Dax. First of all, I want to touch on a point you said to me while you were listening to the testimony, Gisela, that I-24 News is broadcasting this abroad in English. This is usually a ceremony that's only seen here in Israel or those who would go on to the Yad Vashem life feed. But how important it is for the world to see this and this ceremony, which at this left scale is only really done in Israel. Absolutely. I mean to have the full ceremony broadcast, I think that's really important and interesting. Right. Let's go back to the point we discussed earlier about Ukraine. I mentioned before the number of Holocaust survivors that are still left in Israel. But actually that number increased by 11 today because 11 Holocaust survivors were basically airlifted from Ukraine and brought to Israel for safety. And I want to go back to the issue of Ukraine because it is in many ways reawakened memories in Europe. All the comparisons back to people saying this is the, of course, the most biggest conflict in Europe since World War II. We've heard the genocide comparisons and in a way it has stirred up some of those, I think, feelings and memories in Europe dating from the war period. I think in Europe and in Israel, maybe let's start with Israel. Ukraine, I mean, it's just all the towns that we hear in the news in the evenings or whether it's Anatevka, Babiyar, Odessa, these are all that have been very, very Jewish places where the Jewish communities have been destroyed. So there is this memory with names that is this one layer there. And for the survivors that arrived here, it's just for the second time that they have to live through such a thing that just to be uprooted completely, at least they have a place where they can go. And I think for Europe it has a different dimension, Europeans that really lived, mainly Western Europeans with this idea that the last war was 80 years ago with Yugoslavia it is interesting because you had a war in the 90s. Yeah, but more of that was done and it seemed like an ethnic war so it's easily forgotten. And there was this consciousness, we don't need armies anymore, who anyway wants to go and needs to go to an army and this is how things will be forever. And I think this sudden realization that within Europe, very close to the center of Europe there is a war of such a scale going on and no one at the end of the day can stop it or is doing anything to stop it really. I mean people are trying, I think that's really something fundamentally changing European consciousness. Right, and of course of Latvia, even using the terminology denazification in Europe, misusing we should say. Let's go back to the ceremony of Yad Vashem. By the chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi David Lau, the audience is requested to rise. Let's go. Let's go. Adonai Marabut Sarai. Lord, how are they increased that trouble me many? Are they that rise up against me many? There be which say of my soul, there is no help for him in God's cell. For lo, thine enemies make a tumult and they that hate thee have lifted up the head. They have taken crafty counsel against thy people. Return, O Lord, deliver my soul. Save me for thy mercy's sake. For in death there is no remembrance of thee and the grave who shall give thee thanks. Because my blood requests their death and has not forgotten the cry of the righteous. Have mercy upon me, O Lord. Consider my trouble, which I suffer of them that hate me. Thou that liftest me from the gates of death. How long will thou forget me, O Lord? Forever, how long will thou hide thy face from me? Have mercy upon me, O Lord? Answer me, my Lord, shed light upon me. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For thou art with me thy rod and thy staff. They comfort me. Period Kadish from the step son of Israel. Kadish will be recited by Specialist honor Rabbi Yitzchak Yossep. Degadal and a holy monument from God And Alma, speak only with thee. Grant us mighty power, and my self whose shield and my heart will remember each other fentilating every good one day, long live all Israel, in everything as soon as possible, and with peace, May the Creator guide the world from the future, He is your God, your Father, your Father, your Father, your brother, your son, the Creator, He is Your Creator, as long as He is with you, You are Your Lord, your God, your Father in all things, You are your Father, your Father, and in Heaven, There is a rabbi soldier who came alive and saved, a wounded man who is birer than he was, a soldier who was suffering from cancer, a soldier who was sick, and sick and stung, and all of us know Israel, and he is believers. He's not from the Normans. And the ha節 and the ha節 are not from us. And all of us know Israel, and he is believers. Listen, take a little rest. Could you come in? Can you come to the mute? The mute. El Malera Hamim, Godful of Mercy, will be recited by Holocaust survivor Benny Har-El, born in Tripoli, Libya. During the German occupation of Libya, Tripoli was bombarded. The family's home took a direct hit. His brother and sister were killed as a result of this direct hit, and his mother and him were injured. Benny and his mother were evacuated to a hideout in a town near Tripoli, where they lived in a stable. During one of the shelling, this stable was also hit, and Benny's mother was burned to death in front of her son. His grandfather, who wanted to bury his daughter in a Jewish burial in Tripoli, cleverly overcame the ban on bringing corpses into the city. He rented a carriage, dressed his daughter in a shroud and a wedding dress on top of them. So he returned to Tripoli with his grandmother, holding her dead daughter on one side, and six-year-old Benny holding her on the other side and weeping. Benny stayed at his grandmother's house until the end of the war. In 1948, the family made a lia. He later married and is a father of four children, a grandfather of 14 grandchildren, and also a great-grandfather of four great-grandchildren. Shmari, you have a letter for Nishko. A letter, please. El malerahamim shokhen bamerumim amce minukha nechonah alkanfe haskena bemaalot kedoshim vetehorim. Betehor betehor ahayim et nishmotehem began aiden tehe minuchatam adonai hunachalatam vianuchu beshalom al meskivotam venomar amen. The national anthem, ha-tikva. And the Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony at Yad Vashem is wrapping up. Professor Gisela Dax, thank you for joining us. I just, again, have to think, when we don't have the survivors with us, something we'll see probably in our lifetime how difficult it's going to be to even have these kind of ceremonies. Well, yeah, that's already commonplace to say what will be once they are not there themselves. So we have these videos, movies, all kind of technology here also that can help to keep it somehow alive to tell the stories. Right. To live through narratives. And it will be on our generations and the generations of our children and grandchildren and so on in order to tell those stories. I just, I'll end with two expressions, often commonly spoken, certainly by Jews in reference to the Holocaust. We heard one of these survivors in the testimony mention it the first, never again. And let us hope and pray that those words come to fruition. And the other, of course, Am Yisrael Chai, the people of Israel live. Those are the most fitting words I think we have to end this special broadcast of these Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony from Yad Vashem. Thank you for joining us. I-24 News's coverage will continue.