On 27 Nissan (usually late April/early May), Israel celebrates Yom haZikaron laSho’a weLaGwura (Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day), popularly known as Yom HaShoah, its national Holocaust Remembrance Day. Originally, this day was to fall on the anniversary of the start of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. However, as this coincided with the night before Passover (14 Nissan), a later day of the uprising became Israel’s national day of remembrance.
The word Shoah (catastrophe) comes from Hebrew and refers to the genocide of European Jews during the Nazi era; it is comparable to the Romani word Porajmos. Religious Jews often reject the word Holocaust as it comes from Christian theology. Nevertheless, many communities use the term to refer to all crimes against humanity committed by the Nazis and not just those directed against their collective. Pages could be filled with these terms. But this much can be said: the Anglo-American use of the terminology is very different from that in other national contexts.
Alongside Yom haAtzma’ut and Yom Yerushalaim, Yom haSho’a is one of a number of national holidays that were not part of the traditional Jewish calendar before the founding of the State of Israel. This day is usually celebrated with a public ceremony at Yad Vashem. A siren brings the whole country to a standstill and everyone falls silent for two minutes. During the commemoration of the six million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust, vehicles on the motorway come to a standstill on the hard shoulder, businesses all over the country come to a standstill and there is absolute silence. The idea of commemorating a national catastrophe by upholding the memory of the heroic uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto is rooted in the way the young state of Israel has dealt with genocide since its foundation. From its founding until today, the nation has viewed Jewish self-determination as the opposite of victimhood, as the only guarantee that Jews can never again be sent defenceless to the gas chambers. The pioneering spirit of the newly founded Jewish state even led many survivors to feel ashamed of their role as victims. After all, in the first wars of the young Jewish state, they had often been called upon to defend it by force of arms. It was therefore the heroic, albeit futile, attempt to rise up against the Nazis in Warsaw that should be remembered, and not the liberation of a concentration camp. The Jewish state ensured that the memory of the Jewish resistance was kept alive just as much as the memory of the Jewish role as victims. Even if there were only a few Jewish acts of resistance from a historical perspective, it is all too understandable that they should be remembered. Today, of course, we know that there were so few because the German killing machinery was terrifyingly sophisticated and industrialised. It was only after the public trial of Eichmann in the early 1960s that many survivors began to tell their stories, because the extent of the genocide, the sheer destruction, had now become clear to the whole nation. Since then, the day and the way in which it was committed have changed dramatically in Israel.
Jewish communities around the world celebrate this day as a more intimate form of commemoration that is restricted to the community. In addition, another day of remembrance is celebrated in the respective countries, often on January 27. In this sense, an Israeli holiday has found its way into the Jewish calendar today. Politicians and representatives of the state are rarely invited to the celebrations on Yom haSho’a, but religious ceremonies often take place on this day. Special prayers are recited, such as a special version of El Male Rachamim (The Lord is full of mercy). The communities invite the survivors who are still with us to speak. Several generations of the families meet to talk and cultivate personal forms of remembrance.
The Jewish Community of Berlin, for example, begins by reading out the names of the 55,696 murdered Berlin Jews in front of its community centre in Fasanenstraße. The local youth organisation usually coordinates the event. This ceremony alone lasts several days of uninterrupted readings. Every year, a delegation of around 17,000 young people make their way to the ‘March of the Living’ to provide a counterpoint to the death marches. They often sing and dance together with their surviving relatives. After spending a week in Poland, visiting many camps and learning about Jewish life in pre-war Poland, many of them travel on to Israel to celebrate Independence Day there on January 5.
When I was a youth leader in Berlin, we often filled the gaps in the schedule for reading out the names, so we often spent whole nights reading. Someone said to me at the time: If we only wanted to observe a minute’s silence for each of the six million Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust, we would have to remain silent for about eleven and a half years.
