YOM HASHOAH

Torchlighters - Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day 2005 (Yad Vashem)
During the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day official ceremony at Yad Vashem, six torches representing the six million murdered Jews were lit. The testimonies of two of the six torchlighters are presented here:

Malka Rosental: My mother turned herself over to the Germans in an effort to save my life. My father left me alone with a poor rural Polish family, the Kots. A Jewish child was found at a neighbor's home and the boy was murdered on the spot. The Kots dug a pit in the cowshed and placed a large barrel in it. There was straw, 2 blankets, and a doll belonging to their daughter. I lived for a year and a half in the barrel. The place was so peaceful, nothing happened to anyone there. They were only after me.

Mordechai Zeidel: After the Vilna ghetto was liquidated we arrived at Ponary. They chained our feet and took us straight to the pit. Our work consisted of taking the bodies out of the pits and burning them. We counted the victims in one pit. There were 25,000 of them. Some recognized their relatives, their wives, by their clothes. I can see the flames, my people being incinerated. I had no family left. I knew I had burned them all at Ponary. Ponary comes to visit me every night.

SEE ALSO: "Never Again Will We Find Ourselves Unprepared" - Prime Minister Sharon on Holocaust Remembrance Day (Prime Minister's Office)
"Jews will never again exist in a world with no home, with no haven to run to, and no Jewish defense force to protect them." "Never again will we find ourselves unprepared."