Holocaust Remembrance Day

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel. At 10am this morning, a nation-wide siren sounded for two minutes, during which the entire country stopped, stood at attention, and paid silent tribute to the victims and survivors of the Holocaust.

It's interesting to experience a commemoration of the Holocaust in the Jewish state, with the largest population of Holocaust survivors in the world. This memorial day runs in stark contrast to Memorial Day in the United States-- a day of vacation, BBQs, drinking, and shopping. Almost all television and radio stations are running Holocaust-related programming until 8pm tonight, when the programming began last night.

----------------

One of the teachers from school just sent this out to the staff. It's a recording of "Hatikva" (The Hope)-- now the Israeli national anthem-- sung at the concentration camp Bergen-Belsen just after the prisoners were liberated by the British army on April 20, 1945. Pretty amazing.

http://genealogy.org.il/BergenBelsenHatikva.mp3