A siren will sound on Tuesday morning not to alert to yet another Islamic Regime missile attack, but in commemoration of the six million Jews who perished at the hands of the Nazi regime during the Holocaust. After weeks of sirens, at 10 am, a long siren will sound, and the country will come to a halt, not to rush for bomb shelters, but to contemplate in silence the fate of those taken in the wake of another war, in another continent.
The day of commemoration is set to begin on Monday night with a prerecorded official state Remembrance Day ceremony at the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum and memorial site. Despite a two week ceasefire being brokered on Wednesday, the security situation led to a deviation from a usual live event attended by Israel's leaders and officials.
After the Israeli flag was lowered to half mast and Holocaust survivor former chief rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau lit the main memorial torch, master of ceremonies Miri Michaeli noted that the people of Israel were mindful of the soldiers still fighting on frontlines to protect the country, and the families of fallen and wounded soldiers. The Jewish family, many of which were torn asunder by the Nazi regime, was the official theme of the 2026 ceremony. Yet the ongoing struggles of the state against its current enemies ran through as a constant in the speeches of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog, with the latter beginning his speech acknowledging that the state holidays had come down the calendar yet again in a period of war. Hezog argued that the current war highlighted the nation's connection to the great calamity of the past.
"There are moments within this war in which the story of one family sheds light on and tells the story of an entire nation," said Herzog, recalling his visit to the shiva of 26 year old IDF Armored Corps reservist Asaf Cafri, who was killed in Gaza.
At the Shiva house, Herzog met Cafri's great grandmother, Magda Baratz, who had been sent to Auschwitz with her family, enduring starvation, cold, forced labor, death marches, and the murder of her parents and brother before being liberated from the Bergen Belsen concentration camp in 1945.
On her way to Israel, Baratz met her husband at a Cyprus detention camp, and when they immigrated to the holy land together they began to establish a family. The President said that Cafri's grandmother was born amid the 1948 War of Independence.
"Three years after nearly her entire family was murdered in the Holocaust – from the ruins and destruction, Magda brought new life into the world," said Herzog.
Baratz was attending the 80th anniversary of the Bergen Belsen camp's liberation with her family when she received the news that her eldest great grandchild had fallen in the war. Two weeks later after Herzog met with Baratz, she passed away. After everything she endured, the loss of Cafri was too great, said the president.
Herzog offered his condolences to all those who had lost family fighting to protect the country, the descendants who replaced "the striped prisoner’s uniform" with the IDF uniform.
"Our people, who endured the Holocaust – the darkest and most abhorrent chapter in human history – chose not merely to survive, but to grow, to create, to rebuild, and to build here, in this place, a national home based on hope, faith, and mutual responsibility," said Herzog. "A home that is a miracle, a wonder of wonders. A home built with toil and tears, acquired at an unbearable price, a home that rests even today on that same spirit of family and on the simple understanding held by all who live here, from all ethnic groups, faiths, and worldviews, that we have no other home and that we are here to stay forever."
The president also warned against internal strife inside Israel, stating "we did not rise from the ashes of the crematoria only to be consumed by the fire of discord."
Netanyahu cast the survivors as heroes who overcame and "defeated" the Holocaust in order to see and contribute to the establishment of the state of Israel. The Prime Minister said they now had the privilege to witness "something else of unparalleled importance," as Israel defeated its "oppressors."
Netanyahu said he was fulfilling his promise that there would not be a "second Holocaust" by not allowing Iran to develop nuclear weapons.
"We have destroyed large parts of the industry of death that the Iranian regime had developed over decades: the nuclear plants, missiles, UAVs, the naval fleet, the air force, and vast quantities of other weapons systems.," said Netanyahu. "Had we not acted, the names Natanz, Fordow, Isfahan and Parchin might have been remembered eternally in infamy, just like Auschwitz, Treblinka, Majdanek, and Sobibor. But we acted, and how—in an unprecedented historic partnership with President [Donald] Trump and the United States."
Europe had forgotten many of the lessons of the Holocaust, said Netanyahu, but Israel would not forget its commitment to "protect civilization from barbarism."
"Dear Holocaust survivors, citizens of Israel, no other nation could have accomplished what we have done: to bring about this immense transformation, from Holocaust to rebirth, a rebirth rich in achievements that amaze the family of nations," said Netanyahu. "The flourishing State of Israel will continue to serve as a beacon of liberty, progress and prosperity."
After the prime minister's speech and several musical tributes, Saadia Bahat, Michael Sidko, Miriam Bar Lev, Moshe Harari, Ilana Falach, and Avigdor Neumann lit further memorial torches. Menachem Neeman recited a prayer for the martyrs of the Nazi orchestrated genocide.
Survivor Haviva Burst spoke on behalf of the survivors. She related that she could not recall the faces of her parents and siblings, but could still remember the love their family shared. She could also remember the pain of German soldiers cutting the beard of her grandfather, the pain of the murder of her family, her father departing to join partisan fighters, and the loneliness she felt wandering Poland. She was taken in by a member of the Polish resistance until the end of the war. Even after she made Aliyah and established a family of her own in Israel, she kept in touch with the family that rescued her.
"Out of this immense loss, I learned how essential family is: The foundation of life, the ability to take root and grow in the soil of our homeland even after devastation," said Burst. "We must do everything to protect this country that we built with our own hands for our children, our grandchildren and generations to come. For this is our homeland, we have no other. "
After the ceremony, at 11:05 pm, a special musical tribute honoring survivors and victims is set to be broadcast on Kan 11.
Following the Tuesday nationwide siren, an official wreath laying ceremony at Yad Vashem will be attended by Netanyahu, Herzog, and other state officials. While the ceremony will be closed to the public, another open event will be held at 11:30 am.
After the state wreath laying ceremony, the Knesset will broadcast its own memorial event, and Yad Vashem's Hall of Remembrance will host a recitation of victims' names.
In the afternoon, Yad Vashem is holding free guided tours for its newest exhibits, but registration must be done in advance on the museum's website.
Israelis and Jews around the world join in the commemoration of Holocaust Remembrance Day
In London a candle lighting ceremony is set to be held outside the British Parliament on Monday night, with readings by Holocaust survivors and community leaders and performances by adult and school choirs. The same night the Toronto Holocaust Museum is set to host and honor survivors with a ceremony emphasizing Holocaust education and Jewish family.
In Poland, fifty Holocaust survivors will lead around 7,000 participants in the 2026 International March of the Living on Tuesday, walking along the tracks from Auschwitz to Birkenau. According to a statement from organizers, the march is a symbol of resilience over death, but comes at a time when the number of living survivors is rapidly dwindling.
On Tuesday the United States Holocaust memorial Museum is livestreaming in Washington DC to commemorate the millions of Jewish and other victims of Nazi persecution. The museum is set to honor US military forces for their defeat of Nazi Germany, with the 3rd US Infantry Regiment presenting the flags of divisions that participated in the liberation. The Florida Holocaust Museum will pay tribute to the victims the same day, with readings of the names of the deceased victims of the Nazi orchestrated genocide.
In Jerusalem the Jewish National Fund and B'nai Brith World Center Jerusalem are scheduled to hold a ceremony honoring the heroism of Jews who risked their lives to save others during the Holocaust. The Jewish Rescuers Citation will be conferred posthumously on Shoshana Jansje Litten Serlui of Netherlands, Ellen Elli Waterman of Netherlands, Simha Kazik Rotem of Poland, and Paul Giniewski of Austria.
Throughout Israel on Tuesday, Zikaron Basalon will host survivors at small gatherings at homes, enabling survivors the opportunity to share their experiences with the next generation of Israelis.