Posted on 04/27/22
The main state-sponsored Yom HaShoah commemoration will be held at Yad Vashem and broadcast live beginning at 1:00 pm EST on April 27, 2022.
Jerusalem, Israel - Apr. 27, 2022 - For the past eleven years, hundreds of thousands of people in Israel and around the world have taken part in '('Memories in the Living Room'), an initiative that connects Shoah survivors with people looking to hear their stories, and meet them face to face via a live testimony held in someone's living room.
The social initiative, which has become an inseparable part of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day since its establishment in 2011, preserves the memory of the Holocaust and provides the infrastructure for thousands of meaningful and moving personal encounters, taking place simultaneously every year in people’s living rooms.
Prior to Yom HaShoah, President Isaac Herzog and First Lady Michal Herzog hosted a special Zikaron BaSalon “Remembrance in the Living Room” event at the President’s Residence Beit Hanasi. President Reuven Rivlin had hosted his neighbors each year before corona limitations.
This year, the President and the First Lady participated in the Zikaron BaSalon initiative, as will 25,000 other Israelis who will open their homes over the next month. They welcomed Holocaust survivor Ines Nissim to the presidential “living room.” Ines, born in the Jewish community of Thessaloniki, shared her testimony and personal story together with other guests, who took part in an open conversation. Singer Yonatan Razel performed his song “Katonti” and Yehudah Poliker’s song “Dust and Ashes.”
Ines Nissim was only 14 when the Germans invaded Greece and told the story of her escape with her family from Thessaloniki through Turkey to the Land of Israel. “When people talk about the Holocaust, they don’t speak about the Holocaust in Greece,” she says, “and sometimes people ask me, ‘Was there a Holocaust in Greece?’” Mrs. Nissim considers it a great calling to tell the story of the destruction of the Jewish community of Thessaloniki.
Ines shared her testimony: “The Jews of Greece were well-integrated: they worked in trade, as doctors, and as newspaper proprietors. It was truly a very colorful community because people spoke many languages, including German and French."
Michal Herzog mentioned: “Last January, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, I held a Zikaron BaSalon event together with the First Lady of Germany. Charles Siegman told his story, as someone who was born in the Netherlands and survived the Holocaust with his siblings. After sharing his testimony, he implored us: ‘You must continue the memory. I am a witness today, and you must be my witnesses going ahead.’ It was a very moving event for all of us and the many reactions after he showed us how Zikaron BaSalon reaches people, speaks to them, and passes on this memory and this torch from generation to generation. Thank you very much to you, the organizers, and the participants. We are moved that you are here with us, and especially that you are here with us, Ines.”
As the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues to unfold, this year dozens of the Zikaron BaSalon meetings will be held in 'refugee hotels' in cooperation with the Ministry of Immigration and Absorption.
There are 40 such refugee hotels in Israel, including one in the central city of Netanya, where Prof. Giandi Dubin, a Holocaust survivor, and Ukrainian refugee from war-torn Mariupol, will share his story and testimony with a room of fellow Ukrainian refugees for the very first time.
The main state-sponsored Yom HaShoah commemoration will be held at Yad Vashem and broadcast live beginning at 1:00 pm EST on April 27, 2022.