Yad Vashem Marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2017

Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, commemorated this year's the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust by hosting and participating in a wide range of international, regional, local and online activities. Yad Vashem held its annual event for members of the diplomatic corps posted in Israel, with the participation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which was attended by ambassadors and representatives from over fifty countries. In addition, Yad Vashem's leadership, historians and educators took part in various forums and frameworks worldwide, including UNESCO's international conference and the European Union's memorial services.

Yad Vashem representatives stressed to all that the Holocaust was the unprecedented genocide of six million Jews, perpetrated by Nazi Germany and its collaborators, motivated by a radically racist, antisemitic ideology, which sought the annihilation of the Jewish people, its culture and its heritage. The Nazis' barbaric intent and policy to wipe out an entire people violated the fundamental tenets of human morality, thus making the Holocaust a distinct event of eternal universal significance.