Yom HaShoah
The Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust and Heroism — when an entire country falls silent.
A day of national mourning
Yom HaShoah (in full, the Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust and Heroism) was established in Israel and is observed on 27 Nisan in the Hebrew calendar — in spring, near the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. It is a day of national mourning.
On this day flags are lowered, places of entertainment close, and broadcasting is devoted to remembrance. The central ceremony takes place in Jerusalem, at the Yad Vashem memorial.
Signs of remembrance
The siren
In the morning a two-minute siren sounds across the country. People stand still, pedestrians stop, cars halt right on the highway.
Six candles
Six memorial candles are lit — one for each million who perished. They are often lit by survivors and their descendants.
Reading the names
'Each person has a name': the names of the dead are read aloud — to return to them a name out of the impersonal number.
27 Nisan and 27 January
Yom HaShoah (27 Nisan) is the Jewish and Israeli day of remembrance. Separately, 27 January is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, established by the UN on the day Auschwitz was liberated. Both dates serve one purpose: that the world should not forget.
To remember is to keep them from vanishing twice.