The IDF honors International Holocaust Remembrance Day and embraces holocaust survivors and their families all year round
Date: 27/01/2012, 9:03 AM
Author: IDF Website
67 years ago today, 7,500 surviving Jews were liberated from the largest Nazi death camp, Auschwitz- Birkenau, by the Soviet army. An emblem of the Holocaust, the date of the liberation from Auschwitz was selected by the United Nations General Assembly as an international memorial day for the victims of the genocide.
During the Holocaust, Nazi Germany systematically exterminated over six million Jewish men, women and children, as well as other minorities, residing in Europe during the 1940’s. The International Holocaust Remembrance Day honors the victims as well as condemns intolerance and violence in ensuring such atrocities will never again be permitted.
At a memorial held last year, Chief of the General Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz guaranteed, “We stand here, the General Staff Forum, the commanders of the Israel Defense Forces, promising that we, as an army, as a country and a nation, will never forget the horrors of the Holocaust."
Throughout the year, the IDF remembers the Holocaust and embraces the survivors with a variety of visits, programs and events. These include special ceremonies, educational programs, visits to IDF bases, one-on-one meetings, and more.
As part of the ‘Flower for a Survivor’ program organized by the IDF Youth and Education Corps, the Holocaust Survivors Welfare Fund and others, IDF soldiers and officers visit Holocaust survivors at their homes, hearing their stories and expressing the gratitude and appreciation.
Every year, Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gantz, participates in the program as well. He explained, “These people are heroes, and we will continue thinking of more ways to honor the survivors.”
The IDF also organizes the ‘Witnesses in Uniform’ program that selects officers from different units multiple times a year and sends them on a one-week trip to Poland. On the trip the delegation members visit extermination camps, concentration camps and memorials.