Holocaust remembrance days

Holocaust remembrance days, international commemoration of the millions of victims of Nazi Germany’s genocidal policies. The commemoration, observed on different days in different countries, often marks the victims’ efforts at resistance and concentrates on contemporary efforts to battle hatred and anti-Semitism.

Although Jews were the first group to seek a fitting commemoration of the Holocaust, they have been reluctant to add it to their religious calendar. Since the 1st century ce, Jews have grafted events worthy of commemoration onto existing holy days. The destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem in 70 ce and the Spanish expulsion of Jews in 1492 were added to the Ninth of Av liturgy as part of the mourning for the destruction of the First Temple of Jerusalem (586 bce) and the exile that followed. Yet so great was the loss of the Holocaust that many Jews felt compelled to commemorate it on its own day.

The first attempt at a Holocaust remembrance day was a 1948 decision by the Israeli chief rabbinate that the 10th of Tevet—an early winter fast day commemorating the beginning of the siege that led to the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 bce—would be the day to recite the memorial Kaddish. It failed because it had no intrinsic connection to the Holocaust.

The choice of a single day was difficult. Because the organized killing began in June 1941 and continued until the end of World War II in Europe in May 1945, any day of the year could have been appropriate for its commemoration. Secular Israeli Zionists, who saw the Holocaust as the final manifestation of Jewish powerlessness and statelessness, looked for a usable history in the ashes of Auschwitz and found it in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the most prominent instance of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust. They pushed for the observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day on April 19 (which in 1943 coincided with Passover, the 15th of Nisan in the Jewish calendar), the date the uprising began.

Orthodox Jews balked, however, because that date often coincided with Passover. The juxtaposition of Passover—celebrating the miraculous Exodus of the biblical Israelites from Egypt—with a day of mourning for the Holocaust was considered too jarring. They pushed to move the date from the month of Nisan altogether. A political compromise was reached in 1951: a date shortly after Passover, the 27th of Nisan, was chosen. The Israeli parliament declared that day Yom ha-Zhikaron la-Shoʾah ve la-Gevurah (Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day), colloquially called Yom ha-Shoʾah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), marking not only destruction but resistance, seemingly giving them equal prominence.

In contemporary Israel the day brings an impressive range of observances. At 11:00 am a siren blast halts all movement throughout the country for two minutes of silent commemoration. Community-wide gatherings are held, regular radio and television broadcasting is preempted by Holocaust-related programs, places of entertainment are closed, and the day is observed as a solemn remembrance for the victims. Yet even in 1977 Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin sought to eliminate that observance by linking Holocaust remembrance with the Ninth of Av. Despite support from distinguished rabbis, his efforts failed.

In the Diaspora the 27th of Nisan is marked by community-wide observances that have developed a ritual of their own. Survivors, increasingly joined by their descendants, light six candles in remembrance of the six million victims, recite memorial prayers and the traditional Kaddish, and offer poems, songs, and speeches about the Holocaust.

In 1978 the U.S. Congress passed legislation introduced by Sen. John Danforth that declared April 28–29, 1979, the anniversary of the American liberation of the Dachau concentration camp in 1945, to be Days of Remembrance of Victims of the Holocaust. Danforth deliberately sought a date with American significance and a Saturday and Sunday so that observances could be held in synagogues and churches as well as in civic settings. In 1979 the U.S. President’s Commission on the Holocaust recommended annual Days of Remembrance, and in 1980 Congress unanimously passed a law establishing the commission’s successor body, the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, with the charge that “Days of Remembrance of Victims of the Holocaust be proclaimed in perpetuity and be held annually.” Enacted almost a quarter of a century before the United Nations established January 27, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, as “International Day of Commemoration” in 2005, Days of Remembrance are observed in the week beginning the Sunday of or preceding Israel’s Yom ha-Zhikaron la-Shoʾah ve la-Gevurah, but days after the Easter and Passover holidays each spring. At the time that it was established, the U.S. observance was the only national observance of Holocaust remembrance days other than Israel’s. The Days of Remembrance are observed by state and local governments, in schools, and increasingly in churches as well as in synagogues. A national ceremony has been held annually at the U.S. Capitol since 1979—with the exception of 1981, when, following the attempt on U.S. Pres. Ronald Reagan’s life, as a courtesy to his health, it was held at the White House.

The agenda for the observance of the Days of Remembrance often depends on the setting and the community in which it takes place. Jewish community observances often commemorate the victims and emphasize the obligation to assist Jews in distress and the need for communal action to save Jewish lives. Church observances tend to mention the inaction of churches during the Holocaust and the need to combat anti-Semitism. Governmental observances often emphasize the failure of the Allies to come to the rescue of the Jews as well as the obligation to combat genocide and to sustain the values of democracy and the respect for human life and rights that are the antithesis of the Holocaust.

Commemoration of the Holocaust is not confined to Israel and the United States. In 1998 the Vatican issued We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah, a document that spoke of Roman Catholics’ obligation for remembrance. Many countries, especially in Europe, commemorate the Holocaust on January 27, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the largest Nazi death camp, by the Soviet army in 1945. In 2005 the United Nations designated the date as an annual remembrance for Holocaust victims.

Some Orthodox Jews, however, continue to disagree with the introduction of this day of commemoration into the Jewish liturgical calendar and have incorporated remembrance of the Holocaust into services for the Ninth of Av, thus linking the Holocaust to the long chain of Jewish suffering and exile. Critics have charged that this enables them to avoid grappling theologically with the uniqueness of the Holocaust and its implication. Orthodox Jews counter that the traditional day of mourning can incorporate even this, the greatest of Jewish tragedies.