Yom HaShoah 2022: Holocaust Remembrance Day Current Theme, History, Significance, And Everything You Need To Know About The Terrible Genocide

Annually the 27th day of the month of Nisan of the Hebrew calendar, which usually falls in April–May according to the Gregorian calendar, is observed as Yom HaShoah in the Middle Eastern country of Israel and as Holocaust Remembrance Day abroad. The day marks the remembrance of one of the world’s worst genocides called the Holocaust. This year (2022) Yom HaShoah or Holocaust Remembrance Day is being observed on April 27.

Yom HaShoah, a Day of Remembrance of a Terrible History

After Germany incited World War II in 1939 by invading Poland, German Dictator Adolf Hitler began to implement his final solution to root out the Jews. His soldiers began to import the Jews into certain areas. Special camps were set up to mass kill them, the most infamous of which was Auschwitz, Poland.

It was the largest internment camp of the Nazi regime. The Nazi intelligence agency Sicherheitsdienst used to capture Jews from all around Europe here. Those found weak and unable to work were put to death in a poisonous gas chamber, while others were kept alive until they had the strength to work.

Their heads were shaved off, put on torn clothes, and were given the limited amount of food they needed to survive. They were tortured until death.

Apart from Gas Chambers, the murders were also carried out in pogroms and mass shootings; by a policy of extermination through labor in concentration camps; and in gas vans as well.

Between 1941-and 1945, the Nazi army murdered nearly six million European Jews. About 11 lakh of them were killed by putting in sealed gas chambers filled with deadly Zyklon B Gas.

When did this Terrible bloodshed stop?

At the end of World War II in 1945, when Soviet forces occupied Auschwitz, this terrible genocide ended. According to the historical information, at that time, there were seven thousand prisoners in this camp.

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl revealed the painful story of the Holocaust

Annelies Marie Frank was born on June 12, 1929, in Frankfurt, Germany. When Nazi Germany came to power in 1933 at the age of just 4, Annie had to leave Germany with her family to come to the Amsterdams, Netherlands. But when Nazi Army take over there in 1940, they got stuck.

When Najis’ persecutions began to escalate in 1942, the family took shelter in secret rooms in Anne’s father’s office building in July 1942 and started living there. They hid there for almost two years, but one of their accomplices betrayed them and gets Annie’s entire family arrested. Seven months after her arrest, Anne died of typhoid in the Hubergen-Belshan concentration camp.

In the diary that was gifted to Anne on her 13th birthday, she narrated the events of her life between 12 June 1942 to 1 August 1944. The diary was translated into at least 67 languages and became the most widely read book in the world.

Holocaust Remembrance Day or Yom HaShoah 2022 Theme

In 2022, the theme guiding the United Nations Holocaust remembrance and education is “Memory, Dignity, and Justice”.