Holocaust Remembrance Day began Wednesday night at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, in the presence of President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The central theme of this year’s commemoration is “My Brother’s Keeper – Jewish Solidarity During the Holocaust.”

Six survivors of the Holocaust will light the torches representing the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the crowd gathered at Yad Vashem,“Our enemies tried to bury the Jewish future but our future was born again in the land of our forefathers, here we built a base, and a new beginning of freedom, and hope and action.”

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The ceremony was marred by an accident earlier on Wednesday, when a female Israel Defense Forces officer in her twenties was killed, and at least 5 other officers were injured after a lighting rig collapsed above a stage on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.

Netanyahu went on to say that today’s generation “faces calls to exterminate the Jewish State,” and that lessons of the past must not be forgotten. He focused on Iran, calling it an existential threat to Israel, and to world peace, said “It is the world’s responsibility to stop Iran securing nuclear weapons.”

For more, go to Haaretz.com

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