Yom HaShoah, Israel’s Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day, started at sundown on Wednesday night, April 23 with the annual ceremony at the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem.

The official state ceremony, held under the theme “Out of the Depths: The Pain of Liberation and Growth,” included speeches by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

Other attendees included Cabinet ministers, the heads of the security establishment, Supreme Court justices and other government officials, as well as Hamas captivity survivor Alexander “Sasha” Troufanov.

Opening his remarks by addressing Holocaust survivors in attendance, Netanyahu said, “You bear on you the scars of the terrible devastation, but also represent the heroism, the spirit that guarantees our existence.

“During the Holocaust, we were like dust, carried away by the wind,” continued the prime minister. “Our brothers and sisters, the Six Million, they were taken helpless to the pits of death—and to the infernos of fire.

“Today, we have a powerful force that protects us, respected by the entire world. We have a country, we have an army, we have security forces, we have amazing soldiers who have a very fierce spirit,” he said.

“It is an army of lions. It is the army of victory,” declared the premier.

“No decision, no resolution can prevent us from settling the score with these despicable, terrible barbarians, who are as bad as the Nazis, who kidnapped, murdered and raped our loved ones,” Netanyahu vowed, referring to calls for restraint in the wake of the Hamas-led terror attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that left 1,200 murdered and 251 others taken hostage.

“Yom HaShoah marks an important milestone in our efforts to eradicate those who seek to destroy us, bring back the hostages and to anchor our existence in our homeland for generations to come,” Netanyahu stated.

“On this Yom HaShoah, I promise that the military pressure on Hamas will continue, we will completely annihilate all of its capabilities, we will bring back all the hostages, we will triumph over Hamas and we will prevent Iran from achieving nuclear weapons,” added the premier.

The Jewish state “will not lose, will not give in and will not surrender—that is my mission as the prime minister of the State of Israel; that is the mission of all of us,” the longtime Israeli leader said, adding “Together, we stand, together we fight and together, God willing, we will win.”

Herzog opened his address with a call for unity among the people of Israel, saying that Holocaust survivors “begged and demanded” that he work to end the “terrible” division the nation has seen in recent years.

“As the voice of those heroic Holocaust survivors, and of a vast public terrified by the polarization and division tearing us apart—I appeal to you from the depths of my heart: Let us unite, all the House of Israel,” the head of state said. “Let us lower the flames. Let us mend our hearts.

“Let us transform these days—from now until Independence Day, the Ten Days of Sanctity—into a historic moment of national responsibility,” proposed Herzog. “Let us mourn together, yearn together; let us hurt together—and yes, today as well, let us stand tall—together.”

Turning to the 59 hostages in Hamas captivity in Gaza, he said, “A whole nation is with you. A whole nation misses you, worries for you, cries out your cries. A whole nation, anguished and tormented, its soul scorched, knows it will find no comfort or solace until you all return home.

“And so I say to you—the people of Israel and to our brothers and sisters in the Diaspora: We shall overcome, again,” the president said. “May the memory of the millions who perished in the Holocaust be blessed—and safeguarded in the heart of our people, from generation to generation.

The ceremony marked the beginning of the second Yom HaShoah since Oct. 7, 2023—the worst single-day slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust.

Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day is observed from sundown on Wednesday to sundown on Thursday. The observance comes a week before Remembrance Day for the Fallen of Israel’s Wars and Victims of Terrorism (Yom Hazikaron) and Independence Day (Yom Ha’Atzmaut).

At 10 a.m. on Thursday an air-raid siren was set to sound across the Jewish state in memory of the 6 million Jews murdered by Nazi Germany and its accomplices, followed by special activities at Yad Vashem, including a wreath-laying ceremony and the recitation of the names of victims.