Jerusalem, 12 April, 2026 (TPS-IL) — Today, Sunday, President Isaac Herzog and First Lady Michal Herzog hosted the Holocaust survivors and their family members participating in the official state opening ceremony for Israel’s Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day 2026 to be held this week at Yad Vashem. Also attending the meeting at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem was Dani Dayan, the Chairman of Yad Vashem.
The Holocaust survivors hosted by the President and First Lady were Haviva Burst, Michael Sidko, Menachem Neeman, Moshe Harari, Avigdor Neumann, Saadia Bahat, and Ilana Fallach. The President and First Lady listened to their personal testimonies of loss, heroism, and choices to embrace life, build families, and contribute to building the State of Israel.
“This memory must echo from generation to generation,” said Herzog at the meeting. “Every time I am moved anew. Men and women who saw Mengele, who were in the forests, who endured the ghettos and the concentration camps, and here they are with us.”
“This is a privilege that places upon us a duty: to tell and pass on, to ensure that ‘never again’ becomes reality. We are in a constant struggle to defend our state, our name, and our right to live as a free people, and certainly here, in the nation-state of the Jewish people, the State of Israel.”