Holocaust Remembrance Day

This study focuses on Holocaust Remembrance Day, which commemorates the murder of six million Jews during the Second World War. The study examines the reasons for the decreasing level of remembrance among the Israeli public and attempts made to enhancing remembrance. This is a qualitative study based on primary sources, research literature, documents, the printed press and online articles, surveys and personal interviews with people involved in attempts to enhance remembrance of Holocaust Day among the Jewish and Israeli public. It is evident from the research findings that the time factor is one significant reason for the dwindling of Holocaust remembrance: first-hand witnesses are becoming scarce, the uniqueness of the Holocaust as an event is less conspicuous due to other tragic events around the world, and so on. This, in contrast to memorial days originating from Jewish tradition that have retained their public-conscious significance over time. The study also shows that, with the aim of enhancing remembrance, over the years attempts have been made to integrate texts within the synagogues. These attempts have failed. The study sheds light on future remembrance in the education systems in the form of an active experience that perpetuates remembrance in the long term. Ways of strengthening the national days of remembrance can be examined, for example shaping experiential memory by enhancing students’ civic engagement.

Citizen participation · commemoration · Episodic memory · Holocaust education · Holocaust memory · Holocaust Remembrance Day · Jewish Tradition · Synagogues · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Memory, violence, and history · Polish-Jewish Holocaust Memory Studies