Plan your Visit to Yad Vashem
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Yad Vashem is open to the general public, free of charge. All visits to Yad Vashem must be reserved in advance.

Address by President of the State of Israel, H.E. Mr. Shimon Peres

State Opening Ceremony of Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day 2009

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Speaker of the Knesset Reuven Rivlin,
President of the Supreme Court, Judge Dorit Beinish,
The Chief Rabbis, Rabbi Shlomo Moshe Amar and Rabbi Yona Metzger, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council, Rabbi Israel Meir Lau,
Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate, Mr. Avner Shalev, Holocaust survivors,
Righteous Among the Nations, Distinguished guests,

Six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators, simply because they were Jewish.  1.5 million children were annihilated just because they belonged to the Jewish people.   They were called Moshe, Avraham, Rivka and Leah – even though they had not yet understood the meaning of their names.   One out of every three of our people was murdered during those six cursed years. Each victim had a name.  Each murdered Jew had a future.  The genocide committed by the Nazi murderers was a historic crime of unprecedented proportions.