A siren sounds in Israel.
No one scurries to the nearest shelter or hunkers down against the closest wall for protection. This siren is not a surprise. It’s not to warn of an incoming rocket. This siren is planned; people are expecting it. What they do when they hear it is moving to see.
Jewish People refer to the Holocaust as the “Shoah,” which means “catastrophe or destruction.” The day of remembrance in Israel is known as Yom HaShoah (YAHM hah-SHO-uh).
At 10:00 a.m. in Israel on Yom HaShoah (Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day), the siren will sound, and Israelis will stop what they’re doing and stand still. On sidewalks, in markets, on the street. Cars will stop in traffic. Drivers and passengers will get out and stand next to their vehicles. For two minutes, all across Israel, they stand.
They stand in respect of valuable lives – lives that were deemed worthless by their killers. They stand to honor those who died in the Holocaust.
They stand to recognize the survivors, the suffering they endured so many decades ago, and the painful memories that have haunted them since.
They stand in tribute to the resistance heroes who fought back or risked their lives to hide, rescue, and liberate as many Jewish people as they could from the horrors of the Holocaust.
