Czechs today remembered the victims of the Holocaust by reading their names in public

Commercial presentation Update: 05/06/2024 14:58
Issued by: 05/06/2024, 14:58

Prague – The names of the victims of the Nazi Holocaust were heard in 31 Czech and Moravian cities this afternoon. The public reading of the names, which started exactly at 2:00 p.m., is part of this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day, Yom Hashoah. Since 2006, the event has been organized by the Terezín Initiative Institute (ITI), a memory institution; more information is available on the initiative’s website.

“It is a reminder of the victims of the Holocaust in a form that restores their identity. When we say six million victims, it is a huge number that means nothing to anyone. The moment we read the name of the victim out loud and bring the individual story closer with documentation and photographs, it is something other than a dry discussion based on statistics,” ITI Director Tomáš Kraus told ČTK.

In Prague, the names of Holocaust victims were read on Mariánské náměstí, in Brno on Moravské náměstí in front of the Governor’s Palace, in Olomouc on Horní náměstí. The event also takes place in Ústí nad Labem, Pilsen, Kolín, Liberec, Bechyn, Teplice and other cities.

The main idea of ​​the project is to spread awareness of the Holocaust event as a significant historical experience that affected the development of our society, and at the same time to show the extreme consequences of manifestations of racism, which Nazi policy led to, the organizers state on the website.

Witnesses, survivors of victims and representatives of Jewish and Roma organizations took part in the public commemoration. Every year, schoolchildren and adults, who are not indifferent to the memory of the victims of the Holocaust, participate in the reading. Today, the event in Prague was attended, among others, by Senator Jiří Drahoš (STAN) and the mayor of the capital Bohuslav Svoboda (ODS). Ambassadors or representatives of some embassies in Prague have also promised their participation.

The day of commemoration of the victims of the Holocaust and heroism – in Hebrew Yom Hashoah ve HaGvura – falls on the 27th day of the month of Nisan in the Jewish calendar. It refers to the uprising of Warsaw Ghetto prisoners in 1943 and their heroism. It commemorates the six million victims of the Holocaust. In 1951, this day was established by the Israeli Senate (Knesset) as a day of remembrance for the heroes of the uprising and all victims of the Nazi “final solution of the Jewish question”. In the Czech lands, this day was commemorated in Jewish communities after 1989, later also in the Terezín Memorial. Last year, the day fell on April 18, this year on May 6, and next year on April 24.

The partner of this year’s 19th edition is, among others, the Museum of Roma Culture based in Brno and the Sinti and Roma Center in Prague. Last year, the names of people of the Roma ethnicity who became victims of racial persecution during the war were also heard.

The reading of the names takes place under the auspices of the Israeli Embassy in the Czech Republic and with the financial support of the Endowment Fund for Holocaust Victims and the capital city of Prague.

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