JERUSALEM, April 20 (UPI) -- This year's Holocaust Remembrance Day opening ceremony Monday in Israel honors the 1.5 million children killed during the Holocaust, organizers said.
"Children of the Holocaust" is the main theme for opening events to be broadcast in Israel, The Jerusalem Post reported. Expected to attend the event were Israeli President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Tel Aviv Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, chairman of the Yad Vashem Council and a Holocaust survivor, as well as dignitaries and ambassadors from other countries.
During the 75-minute ceremony, organizers said survivors will light six torches in memory of the 6 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust. The program also will include reading of selected Psalms by the chief rabbis of Israel and the recitation of the kaddish mourning prayer.
Organizers said a two-minute siren will sound Tuesday to mark the start of day-long ceremonies throughout Israel, the Post reported. The official wreath-laying ceremony will occur at the Warsaw Ghetto uprising memorial at Yad Vashem. The "Unto Every Person There is a Name" ceremony -- in which all Holocaust victims' names are read -- will take place at both Yad Vashem and the Knesset.
