A Letter from the Chief of the General Staff, LTG Herzi Halevi, to Mark Israeli Holocaust Remembrance Day

IDF soldiers, commanders and civilian employees,

Days after the beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Mordechai Anielewicz—one of the leaders of the uprising—wrote in the last letter that he sent: “Almost in all hideouts, where thousands are hiding, a candle cannot be lit due to the lack of air.” These simple words received a bleeding double meaning.

Perhaps unknowingly, Anielewicz described not only how the crowdedness in the Ghetto overpowered the candle’s flame, but how the light in the lives of millions of Jews slowly died, as the Nazi tyrant worked tirelessly toward their complete elimination. 

He described how a boy’s hope for the return of his best friend–who was taken to a labor camp with his family–faded, and how it vanished entirely when he realized his house was empty for too long;

How a girl’s naive ambitions and dreams were severed, when she was shoved into a cattle car with hundreds of strangers and sent to the unknown;

And how a mother’s life was cut short at an instant while she helplessly watched–from the distance–as her children stood in an extended queue, awaiting their death.

“Only a few will hold on,” Mordechai Anielewicz wrote in the same letter, “their fate is doomed.” The fate of many might have been doomed–more people than what a human heart could understand and contain–but here, today, we are changing this fate. 

We, the soldiers and commanders of the IDF , ensure the existence of the country for which the fighters in the Ghetto, the children whose lives were cut off before they even began and the families that were torn apart and never saw each other again wished so deeply.

For the sake of the six million whose lives ended, and for the sake of the survivors who rose from the destruction and came here to build us a home–we are here today.

We listen to their stories, remember and bear their heritage with every step we take—a heritage we will pass on to the next generation when the time comes. This is the journey of the State of Israel and our own journey—from holocaust to revival, from pain to hope, from loss to action.

Now we will bow our heads and look down for a moment of remembrance. When the moment ends, we will take a deep breath, look up, lift up our heads and keep walking, operating and ensuring that we will forever belong in our home and live safely in our country. 

May the memory of the six millions be a blessing.

Chief of the General Staff, LTG Herzi Halevi