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Israel's President Moshe Katsav (right) and Acting PM Ehud Olmert attend the opening ceremony for Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day. (AP)
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Israeli soldiers stand at attention prior to a service marking Holocaust Memorial Day at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, Tuesday. (AP)
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Israeli Holocaust survivor Mordechai Fuchs, 81, wears an armband and patch like those Jews were forced to wear by the Nazi's at a service marking Holocaust Memorial Day at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, Tuesday. (AP)
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| By Associated Press April 25, 2006 |
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| Israeli motorists stand outside their vehicles as they observe a two-minute silence sounded by an air-raid siren as part of Holocaust Memorial Day in Jerusalem, Tuesday. (AP) |
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The world must not ignore current calls for the destruction of the state of Israel, Israeli President Moshe Katsav said Monday at the opening ceremony for the country's annual memorial day for the 6 million Jewish victims of the Nazi Holocaust.
Without mentioning Iran by name, Katsav said, "I call on the Western world not to stand silently in the face of the nations that are trying to acquire nuclear weapons and preach for the destruction of the state of Israel."
Iran's president has called for Israel to be wiped off the face of the earth, and Iran is widely believed to be trying to manufacture atomic bombs.
The ceremony, at the Yad Vashem memorial in Jerusalem, included dramatic readings and musical presentations.
In a brief address, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel would always carry the memory of the murder of millions of Jews.
Speaking from a podium, an honor guard of Israeli soldiers standing at parade rest next to him, Olmert said, "Israel has the ability to defend itself, but it calls on the civilized world to guard the light and the liberty, to defend the values of justice and the dignity of man."
Though six decades have passed, the Holocaust continues to be a central part of Israel's culture. About 280,000 survivors of the Holocaust live in Israel today, according to researchers.
On Tuesday, air raid sirens will sound midmorning, signaling a two-minute period of silence in memory of the victims, when cars stop on the streets and drivers stand respectfully next to them. At the Israeli parliament and other locations around the country, volunteers will read the names of the victims, a way of dealing with the concept of the overwhelming number of people who were put to death.
Restaurants, movie theaters and other places of entertainment were to be closed throughout the day.
The ceremony Monday evening began with lowering the Israeli flag to half staff in a sign of mourning.
Hundreds of people sat quietly in the outdoor plaza of Yad Vashem on a cool, windy Jerusalem night, groups of soldiers in uniform next to Holocaust survivors and their families, and a few tourists listening to translations of the Hebrew proceedings on earphone receivers.
Six Holocaust survivors briefly told their stories and lit ceremonial torches in memory of the victims.
"In another generation, no survivors will be left as witnesses to the horror of the Holocaust, only the timeless records," Katsav said, appealing for renewed efforts to ensure the memory. "We must see to it that every generation feels that it was rescued from the fires of the Holocaust," he said, paraphrasing a central concept of the just-finished Jewish holiday of Passover, which marks the exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.
Holocaust survivors grow poorer, sicker as they age in Israel
When Gizela Burg arrived in Israel after surviving four Nazi concentration camps in World War II, she thought her problems of survival were behind her. But now, at the age of 83, she can no longer afford to pay her growing medical bills.
Burg is among about 90,000 Holocaust survivors - a third of the total in Israel - who live in poverty, according to official figures. For the widow with no children, her inability to fix her TV or afford a taxi meant she was spending Israel's annual Holocaust remembrance day on Tuesday alone and in silence.
Israelis marked the day, beginning at sunset Monday, by closing bars, discos and other places of entertainment. TV and radio stations broadcast the stories of survivors. Air raid sirns were to sound midmorning to mark a two-minute period of silence in memory of the 6 million Jews killed in World War II.
Israeli officials warned in speeches that anti-Semitism has not yet been eradicated in the world. Speaking at the opening ceremony Monday evening, Israeli President Moshe Katsav called for vigilance.
"I call on the Western world not to stand silently in the face of the nations that are trying to acquire nuclear weapons and preach for the destruction of the state of Israel," Katsav said, without mentioning Iran by name. Iran's president has called for Israel to be wiped off the face of the earth, and Iran is widely believed to be trying to manufacture atomic bombs.
But at home, Israel is having trouble caring for aging Holocaust survivors, as their medical bills grow each year. The country has received close to $80 billion over the years in compensation from Germany and, according to Finance Ministry figures, gives out $326,000 to survivors every year.
But many survivors say the money is not nearly enough to live on.
An organization called the Holocaust Survivors' Welfare Fund distributes government aid for medical costs, but its budget in recent years has not grown in proportion to the need. Less than 10 percent of the fund's annual $35 million budget comes from the government.
Eighty-five percent of the fund's money comes from a New-York based Claims Conference whose funding come mostly from Germany and Austria.
The Israeli government has increased funding for the organization in recent years, from $435,000 two years ago to $3 million slated for this year. But most of the funds for 2006 have not yet come through.
About 10,000 survivors who are eligible for medical aid are not receiving it, said the chairman of the fund, Zeev Factor, 80 and himself a Holocaust survivor.
"These people are barely surviving, but the crisis begins when a real sickness befalls them," Factor said. "The government of Israel has received money from the German government ... but I think the government didn't use enough for the survivors."
Like many others who survived the war and moved to Israel, Burg took a job with a modest salary, as a doctor's assistant, and had even set some money aside for retirement. Her husband, a car mechanic, died of cancer 22 years ago. Her savings ran out after three eye operations.
Now she chooses to pay $1,300 for dental treatment instead of putting meat on her table or fixing her TV. The fund had hoped to pay for the work on her teeth but could not, she said.
"I don't pay for medicine because I have to pay for electricity and for gas and property taxes," Burg said by telephone from her apartment in the Tel Aviv suburb of Holon. "TV was my entire life. I would watch Hungarian channels and remember home."
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