Israelis ended their traumatic national day of mourning, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, with a night gathering in a southern kibbutz named Yad Mordechai.
Began after sunset at 8 p.m (1700 GMT) On Tuesday, more than 2000 Israelis, including students, soldiers and Holocaust survivors, gathered in kibbutz Yad Mordechai for a memorial services which finalized the 24-hour commemoration across the country.
The solemn hour-and-a-half event opened with speakers, songs and dance, with the commemoration candle lit by 83-year-old Holocaust survivor Yacov Michaelovich.
At the age of 16, Michaelovich survived a ghetto in Hungary as well as the infamous concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, and miraculously found his sister in Russia 32 years later.
"I feel that as a Jewish Holocaust survivor, it is a miracle that today the Jewish people have a state and an army," said the old man, adding he wants to share his nightmarish memories and the importance of Yom Hashoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day.
"I believe in God today more than ever, I look around and I am so thankful for what I have," he said.
As the slideshows rolled, the audience gazed up at four screens that flashed stark images of history, humanity and hurt. Black and white photos from the ghettos and concentration camps, documented the brutality by showing forced labor, starvation and death.
Tuesday is a traumatic national day of mourning for Israelis. Children attend school dressed in black, while adults refrain from attending enjoyable activities in solemnity. Memorial services, including lighting candles and displaying black and white photos, take place nationwide.
At exactly 10 a.m.(0700 GMT) in the morning, a mournful two- minute air-raid siren wailed throughout Israel, marking the commencement of the day's somber ceremonies while evoking the memories of the six million Jews who perished decades ago as victims of Nazi hate.
People exited their cars. Conversations were put on hold. Israelis bowed their heads, standing in motionless silence.
Before the outbreak of World War II, there were an estimated 16. 5 million Jews in the world.
Demographer Sergio Della Pergola has recently calculated that if the Holocaust had not occurred, there would be as many as 32 million Jews in the world today, instead of the current 13 millions.
"We need this day to remember and to make sure future generations never forget," said Commander of the Israel Defense Forces Southern Command Yoav Galant during the ceremony. "I am proud to defend Israel and I want to prevent this tragedy from ever happening again."
This year's theme was the "Children in the Holocaust." About a quarter of the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust were children.
The ceremony in kibbutz Yad Mordechai, a center for Holocaust memory, included somber songs and dance performed by talented children from all over the country.
The ceremony was overlooked by the monument of Anilewicz clutching a grenade, set on the hilltop above, in honor of Mordechai Anilewicz, who died fighting the Nazis while being the commander of the Jewish Fighting Organization in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.
75-year-old Moshe Mandburg, also a Holocaust survivor recalled that "I was 10 years old when the Nazis killed my family in front of my eyes, and I ran to the forest and survived there until I was 15 years old."
"I believe in the human spirit. You have to do things for yourself and no one will do them for you," he said.
(Xinhua News Agency April 22, 2009)
