Yom Ha-Shoah: Holocaust victims' names read publicly throughout the Czech Republic
Holocaust victims' names were read aloud on Monday afternoon in 31 towns across Bohemia and Moravia. The public readings all began at 14:00 CET and were part of the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Ha-Shoah) ceremonies.
Since 2006, this event has been organized by the Institute for the Terezín Initiative (ITI) in the Czech Republic. “This commemorates Holocaust victims in a format that restores their identities. When the number of six million victims is said, it’s so enormous that it doesn’t convey anything to anybody. When we read the name of a victim aloud and convey his or her individual story through documentation and photographs, that’s something different from a dry discussion based on statistics,” ITI director Tomáš Kraus told the Czech News Agency (ČTK).
Holocaust victims’ names were read aloud on Mariánské náměstí in Prague, in Brno on Moravské náměstí in front of the Místodržitelský Palace, and on Horní náměstí in Olomouc. The event also happened in Bechyně, Kolín, Liberec, Plzeň, Teplice, Ústí nad Labem and other towns.
The main idea of the project is to raise awareness about the Holocaust as an important historical experience that impacted the development of Czech society, as well as to show the extreme repercussions of the racist speech that led to Nazi policies, the organizers said on their website. The commemorations were held in public spaces and were attended by eyewitnesses, descendants of Holocaust victims, and representatives of Jewish and Romani organizations.
Schoolchildren and teenagers who are not indifferent to Holocaust victims and their memory are annually involved in reading the names. In Prague the event was attended by Czech Senator Jiří Drahoš (“Mayors and Independents” – STAN) and the Mayor of Prague, Bohuslav Svoboda (Civic Democratic Party – ODS).
Ambassadors or representatives of some embassies in Prague also promised to attend. Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day (in Hebrew, יום הזיכרון לשואה ולגבורה, pronounced Yom HaZikaron laShoah ve-laG’vurah) falls on the 27th day of the month of Nisan in the Jewish calendar.
The day marks the 1943 uprising of prisoners in the Warsaw Ghetto in occupied Poland and their heroism. It reminds people of the Holocaust and its six million victims.
In 1951, the day was established by the Israeli Senate (the Knesset) as a day to remember the heroes of the uprising and all victims of the Nazis’ “Final Solution to the Jewish Question“. In the Czech lands, this day was commemorated in Jewish communities after the transition to democracy in 1989 and later was also marked at the Terezín Memorial.
Last year this day fell on 18 April, this year on 6 May, and in 2025 it will fall on 24 April. Among the partners of the 19th annual public reading this year were both the Centre for the Roma and Sinti in Prague and the Museum of Romani Culture in Brno.
The names of Romani people who fell victim to racial persecution during the Second World War were also read aloud. The public readings of the names of Holocaust victims were held under the auspices of the Embassy of Israel to the Czech Republic with the financial support of the Capital City of Prague and the Foundation for Holocaust Victims.
