What is Yom HaShoah
Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) occurs each year on the 27th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan (sometime in April or May) to remember the victims and honor the survivors of the Holocaust. This date was selected by the Israeli Parliament on April 12, 1951. The original proposal was to hold Yom HaShoah on the 14th of Nisan, the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (April 19, 1943), but this was problematic because the 14th of Nisan is the day immediately before the Jewish holiday of Passover. The date was moved to the 27th of Nisan, which is eight days before Israeli Independence Day. There is no institutionalized ritual for Yom HaShoah, but generally, memorial candles are lit and the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the departed, is recited.
2022
Thursday, April 28
2023
Tuesday, April 18
2024
Monday, May 6
2025
Thursday, April 24
Annual Name Reading
This worldwide Holocaust memorial project is designed to perpetuate the memory of the Six Million – among them 1.5 million Jewish children – murdered while the world remained silent.
Every year during the Days of Remembrance, the AHEC participates by enlisting your participation in this special project.
Through the public recitation of the names of children who lost their lives during the Holocaust, we not only memorialize them, but help to restore their identity and dignity. Six Million is no longer an intangible figure, but a person with an identity to be remembered.
Hundreds of thousands of names will be spoken and remembered. It is a very simple idea that has had a profound effect on its participants.
Day of Remembrance
The United States Congress established the Days of Remembrance as our nation’s annual commemoration of the Holocaust. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is responsible for leading the nation in commemorating the Days of Remembrance, and for encouraging and sponsoring appropriate observances throughout the United States.
The Days of Remembrance run from the Sunday before Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah) through the following Sunday and are observed by state and local governments, military bases, workplaces, schools, churches, synagogues, and civic centers.
The Alabama Holocaust Education Center (AHEC) officially commemorates the Holocaust with a community event during the Days of Remembrance.
Days of Remembrance, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
VIDEO: “Why We Remember the Holocaust,” (8:54), U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum