Holocaust

Originally appeared in JNS.org on April 14, 2026

“As prime minister of Israel, I have promised: ‘There will not be a second Holocaust.’ This year, we turned that promise into reality,” Netanyahu said.

Due to security considerations, Israel’s opening ceremony for Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day) at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem did not take place live this year. Instead, audiences across the globe were invited to participate via a prerecorded broadcast aired at 8 p.m. Monday Israel time on Israeli television channels.

Viewers paused to reflect and take part in a shared act of memory, hearing directly from survivors and Israeli leaders while honoring the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust.

This year’s theme, “The Jewish Family During the Holocaust,” highlighted the family as a source of identity, strength and human connection even in the face of unimaginable loss. In ghettos, concentration camps and hiding places, families preserved dignity and hope under the harshest conditions, Yad Vashem said, noting that many survivors went on to rebuild their lives in Israel.

The Jewish state is home to some 111,000 survivors, according to government estimates released ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day 2026.

Following the lowering of the national flag, Rabbi Yisrael (Israel) Meir Lau, 88, a Holocaust survivor and former chief rabbi of Tel Aviv and Israel who now serves as chairman of the Yad Vashem Council, lit a memorial torch.

Netanyahu’s address

In his address, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drew a direct line between the lessons of the Holocaust and Israel’s war against Iran and its regional proxies, declaring that the Jewish state today possesses the strength that was absent during the darkest chapter of Jewish history.

“In the Holocaust, the poet Uri Zvi Greenberg wrote: ‘We were an extinct people like a wild beast in a hunt,’” Netanyahu said. “In contrast, today our people fight back against our oppressors. During the Holocaust, we were like an abused animal crying in agony. Today, however, we have a state which is stronger than ever, which roars with power.”

Netanyahu stressed the importance of Israel’s military campaign against Iran, saying that through “Operation Rising Lion” and “Operation Roaring Lion,” Israel, together with the United States, had significantly weakened Tehran’s capabilities.

“Together, we crushed the evil regime in Iran to dust,” he said, adding that the ayatollahs had sought nuclear weapons and tens of thousands of ballistic missiles “intended to annihilate us,” while funding terror proxies aimed at encircling Israel in a “ring of fire.”

Reaffirming a longstanding commitment, Netanyahu said: “Year after year, I stand here and pledge at the Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony: ‘We will not allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons.’ As prime minister of Israel, I have promised: ‘There will not be a second Holocaust.’ This year, we turned that promise into reality.”

The prime minister reflected on the historic vulnerability of Jews during World War II, posing questions about whether earlier action might have prevented the catastrophe. “Citizens of Israel, looking back at the Holocaust, the question ‘what if’ arises in all its bluntness,” he said. “What if we had a state before the catastrophe? What if the nations of Europe had stopped the monstrous Nazism in time instead of appeasing it?”

“There are no ‘what ifs’ in history,” Netanyahu continued. “The terrible disaster happened. But given all this, we are acting so that future generations will not ask ‘what if’ with a sense of missed opportunity.”

Netanyahu highlighted Israel’s close strategic cooperation with Washington, describing an unprecedented partnership with U.S. President Donald Trump. “We have changed the course of history,” he said. “The independent State of Israel, the Israel Defense Forces, Israel’s security organizations—all of these are manifestations of our regaining control over our destiny after centuries of horrible weakness.”

He said Israel’s actions also serve broader global interests. “On this Holocaust Remembrance Day, let us remember that the State of Israel is at the peak of its power,” Netanyahu said. “Who could have imagined 80 years ago that our daring Air Force pilots and American military pilots would defend the Middle East, wing to wing? We are defending Israel, the United States and … we are defending Europe.”

Addressing Holocaust survivors directly, Netanyahu praised the transformation from destruction to renewal. “No other nation could have accomplished what we have done: to bring about this immense transformation, from Holocaust to rebirth,” he said.

Concluding his remarks, Netanyahu praised the resilience of Israel’s soldiers. Quoting from the Book of Chronicles, he described them as “mighty men of valor … whose faces were like the faces of lions,” adding, “As a nation of lions, we shall continue, with God’s help, to roar the roar of eternity.”

Herzog’s address

Israeli President Isaac Herzog shared the moving story of fallen soldier Master Sgt. (res.) Asaf Cafri, 26, and his great-grandmother, Magda Baratz, who survived the Holocaust. Baratz, 96, was visiting the site of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany when her great-grandson, a reservist in the IDF Armored Corps, fell in battle in the Gaza Strip on April 24, 2025. She died 15 days later.

“There are moments within this war in which the story of one family sheds light on and tells the story of an entire nation,” Herzog said. “When Michal and I arrived to console the Cafri family at their home in Beit Hashmonaim and met Asaf’s dear parents, Yifat and Hagai, his brother, and his partner, I could not help but notice a woman sitting to the side, quiet and withdrawn. Her eyes were sorrowful, as though carrying a pain both old and new. I approached her and asked who she was. ‘I am Magda, Asaf’s great-grandmother.’”

The president recounted Baratz’s harrowing story of being imprisoned with her family at 15 in a ghetto in Transylvania before being deported to Auschwitz. She endured forced labor, starvation and death marches, and witnessed the murder of her parents and a sibling.

In the spring of 1945, she was liberated from Bergen-Belsen, weighing only 20 kilograms (44 pounds). At the detention camp in Cyprus, on her journey to Israel, she met her husband, Ze’ev. After immigrating to Israel, she started a family. Her firstborn daughter, Racheli—Asaf’s grandmother—was born during Israel’s War of Independence.

“This is my victory: to survive, to immigrate to the Land of Israel and to establish a dynasty,” Baratz would say, Herzog recounted. “Indeed, she established a magnificent dynasty: children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Generation after generation of renewal, love of humanity, the Jewish people and the Land of Israel.”

Six years ago, ahead of Yom Hashoah, a photograph of Baratz and Asaf was featured on a billboard. On the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Bergen-Belsen, Baratz was invited to attend a ceremony there as a guest of honor, accompanied by her family. It was there, Herzog said, that she received the devastating news: Her beloved great-grandson, Asaf, had fallen in battle defending the State of Israel.

“Last year, shortly before we parted with the Cafri family, Magda Baratz asked to share a final message with us. From the depths of her sorrow, in moments of unbearable grief, Magda, the Holocaust survivor and bereaved great-grandmother, chose a message of hope. ‘I continue to believe that it will be good here. I may no longer be here, but it will be good here. I believe this with all my heart,’ Magda told us.

“This hope, this faith that Magda left us, is not hers alone. It is the hope that you have bequeathed to us—and this hope, this knowledge, so Jewish, so Israeli—we carry with us.

Herzog offered words of encouragement to the security forces currently defending the country. “To each and every one of you, I say: This is a prolonged campaign, but I am confident that we will emerge from it strengthened and empowered.”

He continued: “Our eyes look toward the heavens and pray for the safety and success of the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces and all the security forces wherever they may be. Let us not forget: 81 years after the Holocaust, the striped prisoner’s uniform has been replaced by the IDF uniform, worn by the grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren of Holocaust survivors. For them, it is a tremendous privilege to continue your path and ensure the security of Israel.”

The six torch-lighters

Following a musical interlude by Israeli singer Roni Daloomi, six Holocaust survivors and family members lit torches representing the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust. The stories of Saadia Bahat, Michael Sidko, Miriam (Daisy) Bar Lev, Moshe Harari, Ilana Fallach and Avigdor Neumann reflected the geographic breadth of the Holocaust and the resilience of survivors who rebuilt their lives in Israel.

• Bahat was born in Lithuania, survived ghettos and labor camps and reached Mandatory Palestine after liberation by Soviet forces. He fought in Israel’s War of Independence, built a career as an engineer at Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and later became an award-winning sculptor.

• Sidko, born in Kyiv, witnessed the murder of his mother and siblings at Babi Yar. He and his siblings were sheltered by a Ukrainian woman who claimed them as her sons and saved their lives. After the war, he reunited with his father, served in the Red Army, became an engineer and immigrated to Israel in 2000.

• Bar Lev, born in Tel Aviv in 1936, returned with her family to Amsterdam, where they were deported to Westerbork and later Bergen-Belsen. She immigrated to Israel in 1946, settled on Kibbutz Ginegar, served in the IDF and became a nurse.

• Harari was born in Poland, escaped the Mordy Ghetto and hid with a Polish farmer. After liberation in 1944, he and surviving relatives faced continued antisemitism before immigrating to Israel, where he worked in the defense industry.

• Fallach was born in Benghazi, Libya, and deported with her family to the Giado concentration camp in 1942. The family immigrated to Israel in 1949.

• Neumann was born in Czechoslovakia and deported with his family to Auschwitz. He survived selections and death marches before being liberated in 1945. After being detained in Cyprus, he immigrated to Mandatory Palestine.

Haviva Burst, a Holocaust survivor born in Wojsławice, Poland, delivered an address on behalf of all survivors. “I don’t remember my parents’ faces, but I remember what it felt like to be part of a big, happy family,” she said, noting that after making aliyah in 1947, marrying her late husband of 72 years and rebuilding her life in Israel, “I learned how essential family is.”

The ceremony concluded with a psalm recited by Rabbi Kalman Meir Ber, the Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel; the Kaddish mourners’ prayer by Hacham David Yosef, the Sephardi chief rabbi of Israel; the El Maleh Rachamim memorial prayer by Holocaust survivor and retired Haifa judge Menachem Neeman; and the singing of “Hatikvah,” the Israeli national anthem.

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Original Article Published On The Jewish News Syndicate

A small but intransigent film team is working to reveal that “national memorials to murderers lie feet away from the graves of their victims. The glorification of so-called war ‘heroes’ with Jewish blood on their hands is in full swing across the Baltic States.”

Eugene Levin’s connection to Latvia keeps getting deeper and more personal. A native of the Eastern European nation, he is making a documentary about a little-known chapter in history where Latvia “closed its eyes,” and allowed Jews to be murdered by Germans and fellow countrymen.

A Boston-area ultrasound technician, Levin came to the United States in 1989. He learned a great deal about the Latvian Holocaust experience from his grandfather, who died in 2013 at the age of 93. “He was the only survivor of 19 in his family,” reports Levin. “He lost everything. He owned seven houses, which we tried to get back. He was ignored and footballed. He got nothing.”

Levin goes back to Latvia once a year “to visit the mass graves of the Jews.”

On a 2012 trip, he noticed what he describes as “a monument 15 feet away from the mass graves of the Jews, written on granite with gold letters, with the inscription, “You gave your life in the fight for Communist oppression of Latvia.’ He then found out that one of the names on the name plaque was Vilis Tunkelis, the person who was in charge of the execution of the Akniste Jews.  The memorial might have been considered a fitting tribute had Levin not delved further to uncover a more complex story of Latvian involvement in the murder of the Jews and of Latvian/German collaboration.

He recounts the history of the Russians and Germans in Latvia, and of the local Latvians during World War II, noting that the Russians occupied Latvia in 1940.

A montage for “Baltic Truth” documentary. Photo by Jeff Hoffman.
A montage for “Baltic Truth” documentary. Photo by Jeff Hoffman.

“The Russians took all the property of the Jews, and then one year later, the local Latvians killed all the Jews. By 1942, most of the Jews were wiped out. And the Latvian state received all of the Jewish property and justified it.”

Levin then describes the relationship between the Russians, Latvians and Germans. “The Latvians here were fighting on the German side against the Soviet Occupation and against the Russians. The Germans are treated like heroes. There is even a SS Waffen Parade every March 16 in Riga—this goes back 25 years!” Levin is most disturbed that the Latvians have “closed their eyes on the history of these people.”

He now wants to share this story with a wider audience, believing that his grandfather is “a small example of a bigger picture.” He has teamed up with veteran Hollywood filmmaker, producer and cinematographer Jeffrey Hoffman. The two met quite serendipitously when Hoffman was working on”4 Million Bullets: The Untold Fight for Survival,” a documentary about Israel’s War of Independence

Hoffman says, “I noticed a Porsche Cayenne with an Israeli flag sitting outside of a doctors’ office. It was ballsy. I had to meet this guy!” And so he left a note on the windshield.

Levin wound up calling, and the two met. “Eugene tells me the story of his grandfather in the Baltics,” recalls Hoffman. “It was fascinating.”

From left: Jeff Hoffman, director and cameraman; Vadim Repeckis, sound; and Andres Hramcovs interview a survivor of “Operation Winterzauber” in Rosica, Belarus. Credit: Courtesy.

‘Not apologizing for their crimes’

The two quickly teamed up and began working on the documentary film, “Baltic Truth.” Initial tasks included working with a scriptwriter in Riga; starting to raise money; and in the past six months, filming in Boston, Toronto, Latvia, Lithuania and Belarus. They have thus far interviewed historians, authors, politicians, professors and survivors.

“There are not many survivors,” laments Levin.

His team includes Hoffman, writer Andrejs Hramcovs and two people in Latvia: writer Andreys Hramcovs and Vadims Repeckis behind the camera/photography, editing, sound and graphics.

“One of our first interviews was with [author and journalist] Ruta Vanagaite,” reports Levin with great excitement. “We sat with her for four hours. She used to be a bestselling writer in Lithuania.” (Vanagaite is known for “Our People: Journey With an Enemy,” co-authored with Israeli Nazi-hunter and Holocaust historian Efraim Zuroff. The book examines the role of Lithuanians in Holocaust crimes.)

“When she found out that one of her family members was involved” in the aforementioned atrocities and wound up reporting that Lithuanians were an integral part of the Nazi killing machine, “she became a persona non grata,” says Levin.

Interviewing Rabbi Menachem Barkahan of the Riga Great Synagogue Memorial in Riga, Latvia. Photo by Jeff Hoffman.

Levin notes that she used archives in her research, which was public information. “THIS is the Baltics today,” he says.

The team has visited the Ponary forest in Vilnius, where more than 100,000 people—mostly Jews, Poles and Russians—were executed by German SD and SS, and their Lithuanian collaborators, in what has been called the “Ponary massacre.”

“The Baltic States were independent during the war. Germany and Russia had a deal. They fought each other, (then) wiped out the Jews in the middle. The worst were the locals,” says Hoffman.

The murders took place between July 1941 and August 1944 near the railway station at Ponary. Some 70,000 Jews were murdered there, along with as many as 20,000 Poles and 8,000 Russian POWs.

“In Lithuania, 230,000 Jews were killed in the first six months of the war by locals,” says Levin. “There are over 200 sites in Lithuania alone that are considered mass graves.”

Leven and Hoffman believe they have uncovered an important story that needs to be widely told. They feel that the story of the Lithuanians and Latvians—and their willingness to acknowledge what happened during the war—differs greatly from the story of the Germans.

“The Germans admit it, say they are sorry, and are trying to fix it. The Lithuanians and Latvians are so proud of their national history. They are rewriting it. They are not apologizing for their crimes,” says Levin.

He and Hoffman are working on a trailer for the film and are in the process of applying for additional funding through the Claims Conference Film Grants. They very reason they are making it, they explain, is that “today, national memorials to the murderers lie feet away from the graves of their victims. Today, glorification of so-called war ‘heroes’ with Jewish blood on their hands is in full swing across the Baltic States, where history is being rewritten and distorted.”

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Survivors, liberators, diplomats and March of the Living alum gather for remembrance event.

Neshama Carlebach and Eli Rubenstein remember exactly where they were standing in 1998 when Judy Weissenberg Cohen uttered a moving address to a large group of teenagers from Canada attending the 11th March of the Living in Poland. A line in Weissenberg Cohen’s speech describing her Nazi experience in Hungary, which poignantly became known as “The Last Time I Saw My Mother,” painfully notes, “I never had a chance to say goodbye to my mother. We didn’t know we had to say goodbye. And I am an old woman today and I have never made peace with the fact I never had that last hug and kiss. They say when you listen to a witness, you become a witness.”

Carlebach and Rubenstein have both become witnesses. Singer Carlebach, about to attend and sing at her second March of the Living, recalls her first visit to Poland and the march from Auschwitz to Birkenau in memory of Nazi victims.

“I was decimated…I was so completely destroyed by what I was seeing…” In the Rama Synagogue in Krakow, Carlebach “finally understood” and spontaneously stood up to sing the well-known Krakow Niggun, composed by her late father, Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. The niggun (wordless melody), which moves from slow and mournful to upbeat and celebratory, was inspired by a dream Carlebach had on a visit to Auschwitz. He was reportedly so sad that he fell asleep and had a dream in which naked Jewish prisoners were going to their deaths—and were suddenly transformed into people wearing white clothes, with big smiles on their faces. “Until then, I didn’t take my work as a healer seriously. You become a witness. I was there. I feel it even now speaking to you!”

Rubenstein, National Director of March of the Living Canada, is also co-curator of the March of the Living exhibit which premiered at the United Nations in New York City on January 28 —one day after International Holocaust Remembrance Day, an annual day of commemoration established by the United Nations.

The title of the exhibit, “When you Listen to a Witness, You Become a Witness,” comes from Weissenberg Cohen’s poem of 1998.

Sara Jaskiel, a Brooklyn-based graphic artist and designer, found the work of assembling and curating the exhibit “moving, overwhelming and meaningful.”

She recounts, “You think of each person and what happened, and you want to raise sensitivities.”

Jaskiel is particularly pleased with the “Death March” photograph she was able to assemble, which served as the backdrop for the musical performances and speeches at the January 28 ceremony.

“I did research and found photographs—from the Death March and from a March of the Living—taken at the same angle. It is as if they are parallel—in a row.. I was able to synthesize the photos.”

The moving photo, which all attendees received in the form of poster, depicts a black and white photo of Jews during the Holocaust and a color photo of Jews on the March of the Living walking “together” from Auschwitz to Birkenau.

Rubenstein, Carlebach, survivors, liberators and dignitaries participated in the January 28 premiere. The evening began with guests viewing the exhibit of photos and poems and socializing over wine and kosher hor d’oeuvres.

What initially seemed like an unusual start to an evening devoted to the Holocaust actually nicely fit with both the theme which each speaker echoed—memory and hope. The formal program began with 2012 March of the Living alumna, Sara Diamond, singing “Eli Eli.”

Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal, the UN’s Under Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information welcomed the guests, noting, “We at the United Nations feel privileged to host this exhibit at UN headquarters as part of our Holocaust Remembrance activities.”

The speakers included Ron Prosor, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Dr. Shmuel Rosenman, chairman of March of the Living International, Shlomo Grofman, vice chair, Dr. Naomi Azrieli, chair and CEO of the Azrieli Foundation, which publishes survivor memoirs, and Max Glauben, survivor.

Max Glauben tells his story of survival (photo credit: Howard Blas)

The particularly upbeat Glauben, born in Warsaw in 1928, spoke to the Times of Israel before the ceremony, described the exhibit as “a wonderful display” and said he was pleased that it is being housed at the United Nations.

In his public remarks, he recounted his personal story of survival and thanked the liberators in the audience. He also singled out attendee, Israeli Eli Yablonek, and his guide dog, Glen. Yablonek is blind and does not have a left arm. “Eli came on the March of the Living in 2012—with his dog. It shows that the same animals Nazis used to attack people could be used to do good.”

Rick Carrier, liberator 

One liberator of Buchenwald, Army Combat Engineer Frederick (Rick) Carrier, dressed in his World War II uniform, recounted in a pre-ceremony interview, “I saw prisoners trying to squeeze through a small gap at the bottom of a fence and I reached for my wire cutters. I cut a big hole in the barbed wire fence.” Carrier, now 90, notes that he didn’t realize the people were Jewish Holocaust survivors.

“We were fighting a war—they never told us anything. We didn’t have any knowledge. They were just awful looking when we discovered them.” Carrier proudly showed off the medals he received when he attended last year’s March of the Living.

Following the address by Prosor, where he commented that “The March of the Living is to remind us as much about life as about loss, and triumph as much as tragedy,” Carrier’s voice could be heard shouting out, “Yeah!”

In an interview with the Times of Israel following the ceremony, Prosor highlighted the significance of the evening’s event.

“This all takes place at the UN—a place where, most days of the year, people don’t unite. But [International Holocaust Remembrance Day on] January 27 brings people from all counties, backgrounds and religions together in understanding.”

Prosor elaborated, “Education about tolerance and acceptance of others is absolutely crucial to creating a different and better society for the future.” When asked who the ambassador would like to bring to see the exhibit, he replied, “school students, the younger generation — so they can be more tolerant.”

Asked which world leaders and countries should attend the exhibit, Prosor noted proudly, “Several ambassadors — perhaps four or five — have come so far. They were touched and will educate others.” He concluded, “It is no coincidence that the Hungarian ambassador attended. He came out publicly to take responsibility for what Hungary did to Jews during the Holocaust.”

On January 23, several days after the Hungarian Jewish community accused the government of Hungary of engaging in Holocaust revisionism, Hungary’s United Nations Ambassador Csaba Korosi, at an event sponsored by the UN Department of Public Information for NGOs, reported, “We owe an apology to the victims because the Hungarian state was guilty for the Holocaust.”

Hungary has come a long way since the day one Hungarian Jew, Judy Weissenberg Cohen, last saw her mother.

(Source: http://www.timesofisrael.com)

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Original Article Published On The Jerusalem Post

Anne Frank would have been 75 this year, had she survived. When I put her name into a search at http://www.google.com I got exactly 4,930,000 hits. Mining this abundance of material on her and her diary is an appropriate way, for Internet freaks and others, to mark Holocaust Memorial Day which begins on Sunday, April 18.

This famous young victim’s diary has been translated into more than 67 languages and has sold more than 31 million copies since its publication in 1947. On the “official” Anne Frank homepage, at http://www.annefrank.nl, you’ll find links — in English, Spanish and German — to a brief biography and to material about her hiding place, the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, now a much-visited museum.

The website of the Anne Frank Center USA, whose stated aim is “to inspire the next generation to build a world based on compassion, mutual respect, and social justice” (at http://www.annefrank.com), includes links to centers in Berlin, London and Basel and info about traveling exhibits, educational programs and special events. On a more informal note, http://www.surfnetkids.com provides crossword puzzles and trivia games. Some sample questions: Who was Anne’s older sister? What was the name of the woman who helped hide Anne and her family? What was Anne’s age when she began keeping a diary?

Those enamored of the comics genre might be amused by “Anne Frank Conquers Moon Nazis,” at http://excelsiorstudios.net (click on the box labeled “Anne”). Personally, though, I wouldn’t recommend it for younger children.

On the other hand, interesting educational materials abound, since many teachers around the world still use “The Diary” in lessons about the Holocaust, bravery and even journal writing. Daniel Barkowitz of Boston has created a course for 8th through 12th graders. The outline for 12 one-hour classes is posted at http://www.remember.org

Anne Frank’s diary is now part of the curriculum, too, in North Korean junior high schools. A TV crew recently discovered that Pyongyang doesn’t use the diary to teach how Anne suffered at the hands of the Germans, but to warn the students how they could suffer at the hands of “American Nazis.” A transcript of the shocking report, aired in the U.S. on CBS-TV’s “60 Minutes,” is available at http://www.cbsnews.com

Some people may mark this Yom Hashoah by helping their children imagine what 6 million looks like. When I was in fifth grade, we tried to collect soda caps, but we only got a few hundred thousand. How many times would you have to fill up the Great Lawn in Central Park or Yankee Stadium to see what even 1 million people look like? Right now, there’s an Internet chain letter making the rounds, hoping to reach 6 million people before Yom Hashoah.

When I got it in late March, almost 500,000 people had seen the message.


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