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Sat, Feb 04 2012
Yom Hashoah, International Holocaust Day, commemorated
Photo: Valentina Petrova
Jews in Bulgaria gathered at Sofia Synagogue for the annual observance of Yom Hashoah, the international day of mourning that commemorates the six million victims of Nazi death camps during the Holocaust in World War 2.
The day, instituted in 1951, has no set form of service but customarily includes memorial readings, the saying of the Kaddish – the prayer for the dead – and the lighting of candles. Observance began at sundown before April 21.
Bulgaria’s Jewish community is a fraction of the pre-World War 2 figure. While local Bulgarian authorities intervened to prevent the deportation of Jews from Bulgarian territory to the death camps, Jews from territory under Bulgarian control during Sofia’s alliance with Hitler were deported.
References to this were included in a message on April 20 2009 from the American Jewish Committee on Yom Hashoah: "We remember the richly hued and ancient Jewish civilizations that were destroyed—from Salonika, Greece, to Vilnius, Lithuania… We remember the fertile soil of European anti- Semitism—cultivated over centuries by cultural, political, and religious voices—that created an all too-receptive climate for the Nazi objective of eliminating the Jewish people.
"We remember the courage of Denmark, as well as Albania, Bulgaria, and Finland, for their extraordinary efforts to protect their own Jewish communities," the AJC statement read, in part.
The day, instituted in 1951, has no set form of service but customarily includes memorial readings, the saying of the Kaddish – the prayer for the dead – and the lighting of candles. Observance began at sundown before April 21.
Bulgaria’s Jewish community is a fraction of the pre-World War 2 figure. While local Bulgarian authorities intervened to prevent the deportation of Jews from Bulgarian territory to the death camps, Jews from territory under Bulgarian control during Sofia’s alliance with Hitler were deported.
References to this were included in a message on April 20 2009 from the American Jewish Committee on Yom Hashoah: "We remember the richly hued and ancient Jewish civilizations that were destroyed—from Salonika, Greece, to Vilnius, Lithuania… We remember the fertile soil of European anti- Semitism—cultivated over centuries by cultural, political, and religious voices—that created an all too-receptive climate for the Nazi objective of eliminating the Jewish people.
"We remember the courage of Denmark, as well as Albania, Bulgaria, and Finland, for their extraordinary efforts to protect their own Jewish communities," the AJC statement read, in part.
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The Sofia Echo
Today a non jewish friend remind me about this day . A day that I didn't want to remember as a jew,, because is so painful .. as a jew or human being...***My hope is that this day it will be remembered by persons of all different religions.*** There were and there are different kinds of Holocaust in this world...
Thank you Ana as a catholic to remind me as a Jew the day, in honor of all the death people........
--You know what... there still persons that don't belive that the Holocaust happens "IOM HA [...]
Read the full comment SHOA". But as many other Holocaust of injustice in this world..horrible things happens... In different parts of this world like Hiroshima...Darfur.. " The Inquisition" "The spanish colonization"... they kill a culture of aborigins and their people ..IN ARGENTINA.. the mothers of plaza de mayo...WHERE ARE THEY ,DONDE ESTAN LOS CUERPOS??...
**the war***..IS A MONSTER in Irak in every place where the persons forgot about what means to be a human being?....
what means to be better than sameonelse?... Who is one to judge a different way to express, feel , act ? IN THE NAME OF GOD ..were a lot of disasters , 'like the cruzadas'...
All the religions promote PEACE, LOVE IN THE NAME OF GOD, but
WHEN it will came the day..where we can leave with more acceptance to the others and LOVE THEM HOW THEY ARE!!???..
( I make mistakes in my writting because I am human and english is not my mother language) Thank you!