Yom Hashoah in Meitar

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Yom Hashoah, Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day, began last night.
In my small town the main commemoration began in the basketball hall.
It was packed; everybody showed up; some had to sit on the stairs or the floor or to stand.
Seven plain white silhouette human figures were evident in the background.
The message written on the wall was our imperative to somehow draw out the lines of their faces, i.e. not to see the victims as "THE six million," but rather as six million individual faces.

And while the presentation went on -- candle lighting by several survivors, prayers, a psalm, songs, a dance, readings -- all the while artistic high school students were indeed sketching in faces and clothing.
See the difference between the first and second photos?  Quite amazing, and very moving.

The talented and serious youth were in charge of the commemoration.
What a blessing they are.

In closing we all stood and sang Hatikva, feeling especially grateful to now be living in our own free and strong country.
Let us remember the lost generations in Europe who went before us.
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Remembering

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Cut down, burned. 
But following the conflagration, all around, tiny green pine saplings push their way out through the ash and grow toward the sun.
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Today marks the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
It is also International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
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More posts about the Shoah can be found here.
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Sitting in the light of Merav

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A sitting corner at the Sde Boker campus of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

A local stone is embedded right in the table.
The metal sign says "In memory of Merav Ziv, our student in the Desert Ecology Department."

She died in 1999 in the field,* on a research trip, after falling from her bike.

Her family funds a Merav Ziv Graduate Student Award for Excellence in Ecology and there is an annual symposium on her name.
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* UPDATE DEC. 2017:  Not exactly, apparently.  Please see the comment below from Avi about the date and sad real cause of Merav's death.  May her memory be for a blessing.
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Armistice Day, Beersheva War Cemetery

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If Armistice Day had come just a bit earlier than November 11, 1918,  there would be mercifully fewer gravestones in Commonwealth cemeteries in the world.

Just in little Israel alone, thousands and thousands of foreign soldiers are buried or commemorated in British war cemeteries in Beer Sheva, Jerusalem, Ramla, Haifa, and Gaza.

The Beersheba War Cemetery contains 1,241 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, 67 of them unidentified.

Among the crosses, a star of David for a British Jewish officer.

 More about the cemetery from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission:

By October 1917, General Allenby's force had been entrenched in front of a strong Turkish position along the Gaza-Beersheba road for some months, but they were now ready to launch an attack with Beersheba as its first objective. On 31 October, the attack was carried out by the XXth Corps . . . on the west, and the Desert Mounted Corps on the east. That evening the 4th Australian Light Horse Brigade charged over the Turkish trenches into the town.
The cemetery was made immediately on the fall of the town, remaining in use until July 1918, by which time 139 burials had been made.
It was greatly increased after the Armistice when burials were brought in from a number of scattered sites and small burial grounds.

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(Linking to Our World Tuesday.)
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Memorial Day begins

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Tonight our Memorial Day began, the Day of Remembrance for the Fallen Soldiers of Israel and Victims of Terror.
A great many of Meitar's 8000 residents came down to the Amphi for the ceremony.
The nation-wide siren sounded for one minute at exactly 8:00 pm.

There were readings, prayers, a flute, and a choir.
Here we stood to sing Hatikva.
I felt a strong bond of togetherness (even though I know hardly anyone)  and I was glad to be in Meitar.

 After the ceremony several hundred people walked over to Beit Hatarbut, the new "House of Culture."
The flame of remembrance burned. 

A long table showing all Meitar's soldier sons and daughters who died in the wars or while on duty.

A memorial candle for each.

The evening ended with a singer, an accordion player, and a drummer on stage leading us in singing the old and new songs, all sad, that were written during Israel's many wars.
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Tomorrow morning a graveside ceremony will take place in the small military section of Meitar's cemetery.
Memorial Day is a sad and emotional day for this little nation where everyone is, or feels like they are, family.
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Zachor -- remember

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Even the benches record sad memories in this area of Yad Vashem overlooking Jerusalem.

Yad Vashem this year is putting a special focus on the fate of Hungarian Jewry, “a tragic example of the swift and ruthless efficiency of the Germans and their local sympathisers during the latter period of the war.”

Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day 2014

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Yom Hashoah  began Sunday evening and continues on Monday.
A heavy day in Israel.
This year the central theme is 
Jews “On the Edge”
1944: Between Annihilation and Liberation

Dr. Dina Porat, Chief Historian of Yad Vashem, writes

 Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance
Day 5754 (2014) is marked by the situation of
the Jews in 1944 – exactly 70 years ago. The
expression “on the edge," taken from Nathan
Alterman's poem “Joy of the Poor," very aptly
expresses the feeling which prevailed that year
among the Jews of Europe, who were in the
throes of a double race on which their very lives
depended. On the one hand, cities from east to
west, such as Vilna and Minsk, Warsaw and
Riga, Belgrade and Sofia, Paris and Rome, were
being liberated from the yoke of Nazi Germany;
the Red Army was advancing, and the western
Allies continued to bombard Germany, their
landing in Normandy tipping the scales still further. 
On the other hand, in the same year,
the Jews of Hungary were sent to Auschwitz,
the Lodz and Kovno ghettos were liquidated,
the last of their former inmates were deported
and murdered, and death marches were initiated
from the liberated territories to the heart of what
remained of the “Third Reich.” It was a year in
which everything depended on the scales of
time, and the Jews remaining in Europe were
asking themselves: will the Red Army from the
east and the Allies from the west arrive before
the Germans come to murder whoever is still
alive? Or, as Alterman wrote, which ending
will come first? Events were occurring fast,
one after the other, raising serious questions
in their wake. . . . 

Dr. Porat's essay continues here, in the Yad Vashem Jerusalem Quarterly Magazine 
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See also some short Yad Vashem videos for the memorial day.
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"The last great cavalry charge in history"

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These are pictures I took in Sydney, Australia,  in 2009.
Written in the concrete wall is

TO THE HORSES OF THE DESERT MOUNTED CORPS 

Erected by members of the Desert Mounted Corps 
and friends 
to the gallant horses who carried them 
over Sinai Desert  into Palestine
1915 - 1918

They suffered wounds, thirst, hunger and 
weakness almost beyond endurance but never failed.
They did not come home. [*]

We will never forget them.

There is also a plaque in the ground, unveiled on October 31, 2007,

"commemorating the 90th anniversary of the charge at Beersheba which took place at 4.30 pm on Wednesday 31 October 1917.
The success of the charge led to an earlier conclusion of the Desert Campaign in the Middle East in World War I.

             In memory of
the gallant men and horses of the 4th and 12th Light Horse Regiments that took part in the charge and those that made the supreme sacrifice."

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Update 2024:  See more about this memorial in Sydney at 

https://historyservicesnswblog.blogspot.com/2015/04/australian-war-horses-remembered.html
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* Over 29,000 horses were shipped to the Middle East for the war but at war's end, they could not be returned to Australia.  See what was done with them here.

I tell you all this because October 31, 2012 will be the 95th anniversary.
The Australian Embassy in Tel Aviv kindly sent me the invitation partially copied below.

If anyone can attend, the Embassy would like you to RSVP by tomorrow.
I hope to be there for these very special events.

Be’er Sheva Commemoration

Annual Memorial Service

Wednesday 31 October 2012

 

The Australian Embassy and the Municipality of Be’er Sheva invite you to the commemoration of the 95th anniversary of the battle of Be’er Sheva.  The commemoration marks the fall of the Ottoman controlled city of Be’er Sheva to British and ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) troops on 31 October 1917. The historic charge of the 4th Light Horse Brigade of the Australian Mounted Division played a critical part in this major battle.

 

 

The service will take place at the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery

at 10:30 on 31 October. (Ha’atzmaut St. Be’er Sheva)

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 Other commemorative events:

31 October

Pratt Foundation

8:45   Refreshments and morning tea

9:30  Tribute to the Australian Light Horse Brigade

Park of the Australian Soldier

(Abba Ahimeir St. Be’er Sheva)

Enquiries: Mr Peter Adler, Pratt Foundation 

Be'ersheva Municipality

11:30 Commemoration service

Turkish Memorial Monument

(Tuviyahu St. Be’er Sheva)

Enquiries: Ms Malka Reisner, Be'ersheva Municipality  08 6463910

Society for the Heritage of WWI

15:00 Re-enactment of the charge of the Australian Light Horse

Beit Eshel

Enquiries: Mr Ezra Pimental, Society for the Heritage of World War One -  054 9413155

Be'ersheva Archaelogy Museum

12:00 - 15:00 Temporary exhibition by Sgt. Thomas Henry Ivers, an artist who served in the Australian Light Horse

The Archaeology Museum

(60 HaAtzmaut St)

Enquiries: Mr Goel Drory, Museum Curator - 052 2767113

28th October 

Kinneret Academic College

16:00 Ceremony in Honour of The Australian Light Horsemen at the Battle of Semakh

(Kinneret College, the Sea of Galilee near the historic Semakh Train Station)

Enquiries: Mr Ziv Ofir, Deputy CEO, Kinneret Academic College
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Dear readers, see also Beersheva's Park of the Australian Soldier 
and about this month's re-enactment: The Light Horsemen Ride Again.
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I hope to bring photos of the  war cemetery for Taphophile Tragics  in two weeks.
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ANZAC Day in Jerusalem today

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Many photos today, but I want you to feel as if you were with me at Jerusalem's ANZAC Day Commemoration Service this morning.

ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.
Aussies and Kiwis observe the day on April 25.

But this year the 25th is also the date of Israel's Day of Remembrance for fallen soldiers and victims of terror, so ANZAC Day was commemorated today instead of tomorrow.

Come, enter the Jerusalem War Cemetery on Mount Scopus.

It is one of many many cemeteries around the world for which the Commonwealth War Graves Commission is responsible.

In the Jerusalem War Cemetery are 2,515 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, 100 of them unidentified.
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On the wall on the sides of the chapel are engraved the names of 3,366 Commonwealth servicemen who fought and died in Egypt and Palestine during the Great War and who have no known grave.

At today's ceremony Rabbi Dr. Raymond Apple, a former chaplain and the rabbi emeritus of Sydney's Great Synagogue, read the 23rd Psalm.
To see his medals please enlarge the photo.

After Ambassador of Australia Ms. Andrea Faulkner gave the ANZAC Day address, Lt. Col. Steer of the MFO (Multinational Force and Observers) Australian Contingent read

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
. . .

As H.E. the Ambassador laid the first wreath, one normally strong and motionless-standing-at-attention member of the catafalque party began flexing his limbs and was led away . . .

. . . to be replaced by a nice sailor girl, as a Turk laid another wreath.

The Last Post on the bugle, silence, and The Rouse followed the reading of the "Ode to the Fallen"

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, not the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

The national anthems of Australia and New Zealand and a benediction prayer ended the moving ceremony.

Many groups and institutions had come up to the catafalque to place their wreath.

This year's program featured an old photo of diggers standing in the sand near a row of sabras.
The Ambassador said the one who took the World War I snapshot had written just "Pals" on the back and that this was the beginning time of the Aussie spirit of mateship.

After the official ceremony, Rabbi Apple led many of us over to the 24 Jewish graves for Kaddish and a Psalm.
A second rabbi sang El Malei Rachamim.

All were surprised to find that fresh flowers, a memorial candle, and a black-ribbon-draped Israel flag had been placed at each Jewish grave.

People visited each Jewish grave, read the names, and some put a little stone on the marker in respect.

Then we all walked to the far side of the big and beautiful cemetery to come together near tables of refreshments.

I went back to visit the empty chapel and found this wreath from previous years.
The message stays the same.
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For more about the Jerusalem War Cemetery and for previous ANZAC Days, please see my earlier posts here.
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This post is dedicated to the Sydney-based cemetery meme Taphophile Tragics.
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A day to remember

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Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day is being observed in Israel, from yesterday's sunset until sunset tonight.

Yad Vashem has built a new cantilevered museum.
The skylight roof of the museum sheds light on the dark history of the Shoah exhibited in the long, mostly underground building.

After walking through the chilling exhibits, silent visitors come out of the tunnel-like structure into the fresh warm air of an open porch overlooking the living Jerusalem Hills.
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Only 208,000 Holocaust survivors are left in Israel, and an average of 35 of them die every day.
This makes it even more important to listen carefully to their story today, while we still have living witnesses.
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ANZAC Day commemoration in Jerusalem

An Aussie or a Kiwi soldier stood with head bowed at each of the four corners of the catafalque.

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This morning ANZAC Day was commemorated for the 96th time.
A time to honor the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.

Here are some pictures from the Jerusalem War Cemetery on Mt. Scopus.

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The Australian flag with its stars of the Southern Cross constellation.
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The cemetery, begun in 1917 by the Imperial [now Commonwealth] War Graves Commission, overlooks a Jerusalem much larger than it was during World War I.
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With today's modern technology for making war, it is hard to imagine these men going to battle as "light horse brigades" and, like on this tombstone, even the Imperial Camel Corps.
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The flag of New Zealand in front of the memorial chapel.
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A book with information was in the chapel.
You can read this page and/or learn more at my previous posts about this beautiful cemetery.
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Some of today's invited guests.
I like the Embassy of Turkey next to the Israel Defense Force representatives.
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Following the prayer of remembrance by Pastor Evan Thomas and Psalm 23 recited by Rabbi Dr. Raymond Apple, the ANZAC Day Address was given by Ms. Andrea Faulkner, Ambassador of Australia.
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Everything said was short and to the point, moving but not overly sentimental.
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The poem "We shall keep the faith (1918)," by Moina Michael, "the poppy lady," was read, followed by the laying of wreaths.
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland brought the small wreath looking like poppies.
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It is nice that UNTSO, the United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation, adds "In the service of Peace."
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The always tear-producing "Ode to the Fallen" was read. All repeat: We will remember them.
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A soldier from Fiji (more about him tomorrow) played The Last Post.
After we stood for one minute of silence, he played The Rouse.
And all said "Lest we forget."
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The national anthems of Australia and New Zealand.
Benediction Prayer.
Catafalque Party dismounts.
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After the official ceremony, those who wished followed Rabbi Apple (Rabbi emeritus of Sydney's Great Synagogue) to the graves of 24 Commonwealth Jewish soldiers.
He read a Psalm and El Maleh Rachamim and we all said Kaddish.
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Everyone gathered for refreshments and conversation.
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In the Jerusalem War Cemetery are 2,515 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, 100 of them unidentified.
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On the wall on the sides of the chapel are engraved the names of 3,366 Commonwealth servicemen who fought and died in Egypt and Palestine during the Great War and who have no known grave.
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Who can comprehend such great numbers!
We remember them.
And those who continue to serve in the ANZAC spirit, in our region and around the world, we thank them too.
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