The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day was observed on Wednesday evening with a ceremony in Jerusalem and marks this year the 80th anniversary of the victory of the allied armies in WWII over Nazi Germany. In Russia, the victory day will be celebrated on 9 May.
Hundreds of thousands of Holocaust survivors moved to Israel after WWII, leaving a Europe in ruins and with only the memories of their families, to start a new live, build new families and contribute to the development of the country. An estimated number of 123,000 Holocaust survivors are currently living in Israel, often under difficult economic conditions.
During the remembrance ceremony yesterday, Holocaust survivors lit six torches, among them Rachel Katz from Antwerp. She immigrated to Israel in 1957, where she raised a family and is active in Holocaust survivors’ associations offering psychological and social support to survivors and their families.
Rachel survived the war in hiding, first by a neighbor and later in a convent. After Rachel and her siblings were removed from the convent due to the threat of a Gestapo raid, they were returned to Antwerp and lived in hiding with their mother under assumed identities with the assistance of the Belgian underground, until Belgium was liberated in September 1944.
Israel has also become home of Russian war veterans. One of them is Israel Gitman, who recently celebrated his 100th birthday. He is one of the last veterans who participated in the victorious battles against Nazi Germany and the liberation of the death camps. In an interview by Ofer Aderet in Israeli newspaper Haaretz, he showed his hand which has a large bump.
“It’s a bullet from a German sniper, which was aimed at my heart,” he says. “The doctor wouldn’t take it out and told me that this bullet would always remind me that I received life as a gift. ‘You will have a long life, and it will accompany you,’ he said. And he was right.” One of his many medals is the Red Army's Medal of Courage.
“Despite his rich military past, and perhaps thanks to it, from the height of his age he laments the fact that even after the horrors of WWII, there are still wars in the world. He eagerly awaits news that will herald the end of two wars that are particularly close to his heart: the one that is going on in Ukraine and the one here, close to home, in the Gaza Strip.”
Ahead of the commemoration of Victory Day in Moscow , Russia’s disinformation and information manipulation continues unabated, according to EU East Stratcom Task Force, which was set up by the EU in 2015. Its flagship project is a database of articles on fake news. On Thursday morning, it reported about ‘The myth that won’t die: blaming NATO for Russia’s war’.
Originally commemorating Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in WWII, the military parades have shifted to serve as platforms for justifying Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. Since Stalin’s rule, Russia has tried to hide the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact it signed with Nazi Germany which divided Eastern Europe and triggered the world war.
M. Apelblat
The Brussels Times
