Israel Marks Holocaust Remembrance Day Under Shadow of Ongoing Gaza Hostage Crisis.

Israel marked its annual Holocaust Remembrance Day with a series of ceremonies both in the country and in Poland, with grief for the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis and laments over the plight of dozens of people held hostage in the Gaza Strip.

Holocaust survivors drew parallels between their experiences and the events of October 7, 2023, when the Palestinian terror group Hamas led over 5,000 terrorists in a devastating invasion of southern Israel. The terrorists slaughtered 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 as hostages, of whom 59 are still in captivity.

Speaking at a ceremony held at the site of the Auschwitz concentration camp, President Isaac Herzog noted that while everyone said never again after the Holocaust, there are now 59 hostages in Gaza.

The day’s formal events began at 10 a.m. with a two-minute siren that brought Israel to a standstill. In the way of Israel’s remembrance days, drivers stood by halted cars along highways and pedestrians came to a standstill, remaining silent and unmoving until the siren’s steady, wailing tone died away.

A wreath-laying ceremony was then held at Yad Vashem, attended by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana and Supreme Court President Isaac Amit, among other dignitaries.

Many, including Netanyahu and Amit, then moved to the Knesset for the annual “Every person has a name” event in which lawmakers take turns to read out the names of Holocaust victims.

At the ceremony, Netanyahu spoke about his father-in-law, Shmuel Ben-Artzi, who immigrated to the Land of Israel in 1933, leaving behind his entire family in Poland.

“He used to send part of his salary that he earned in the orchard to his family in Poland,” Netanyahu said. “But when the war broke out, the correspondence ended, and he understood very quickly that something terrible was happening.”

During the Holocaust, “my father-in-law’s entire family from Biłgoraj and Tarnogród in Poland perished,” the prime minister said. Shmuel’s father, mother, his three brothers, younger sister and his twin sister, Yehudit, were all killed.

“Shmuel passed away at the age of 97, but throughout his entire life, even during the last days before he passed away, whenever I mentioned Yehudit’s name he would cry. He always cried,” recounted Netanyahu.

Defense Minster Israel Katz also spoke at the Knesset on Thursday, saying that Hamas “which in its intentions and hatred of Jews… operates exactly like the Nazis in Germany” is part “of the Iranian axis of evil,” which denies the Holocaust and seeks the destruction of Israel.

Katz vowed the government will do everything it can to bring home all the remaining hostages, “and thwart the axis of evil.”

In his first public appearance as the new US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee told attendees at a Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony on Thursday that “I come to bring blessing, and stand with you, because you are everything we hope the world will be.”

Times