By NNN-Xinhua,
Jerusalem : With six torches being enkindled to mourn for the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust, a solemn Israel commenced Wednesday evening the annual commemoration of the Holocaust Remembrance Day.
A state ceremony was staged at 8 p.m.(1700 GMT) at Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Center in Jerusalem, with President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak among the attendants, marking the beginning of this year’s memorial activities.
Six Holocaust survivors lit up six torches during the grave ceremony, commemorating the six million Holocaust victims exterminated at the hands of the Nazis, with a band of soldiers rendering salutes and a series of video clips telling their experiences during the World War II.
“If the countries of the world had dealt with the Nazi threat in a timely, sober way, they could have prevented Hitler from degrading them and murdering tens of thousands of people,” Peres said in a speech, adding that it is forbidden “to be late in history.”
Following the president’s address, Olmert vowed that Israel would remain a place of “protection and shelter” for the Jewish people, while praising the contribution of the Holocaust survivors to the establishment of the state.
“There is not force in the world stronger than the spirit of this people, who emerged from the abyss of annihilation to the summits of creativity, success and the might of the State of Israel,” said the prime minister, pledging that the Holocaust “shall never happen again.”
Under the theme of Holocaust Survivors in Israel, the commemorative activities will continue through Thursday across the Jewish state where some 250,000 Holocaust survivors are now living. A two-minute siren will sound at 10 a.m.(0700 GMT), followed by an official occasion where Olmert will lay a wreath at Yad Vashem.
Places of entertainment were told to be closed during the Holocaust Remembrance Day, and Israel police has beefed up security throughout the state, and remains on a high state of alert till mid-May to secure Israel’s 60th anniversary celebrations.