Israeli Students Talk about Holocaust Memorial Day

It's 10 AM on Thursday, April 19, and sirens are sounding all over Israel. It's not an air raid drill, but the nation-wide commemoration of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Memorial Day. For two minutes, the country comes to a standstill as people interrupt their activities and stand in silence while the sirens wail. It's an eerie sight to see the traffic completely stopped on the roads and highways, with drivers coming out of their cars and standing in silent reverence to remember the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust.

On the eve of Yom HaShoah, the main commemoration ceremony took place at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, attended by President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. During the ceremony, six holocaust survivors lit six torches representing the six million victims. In his speech, Netanyahu emphasized the need to learn from the past in order to secure the nation's future:

"Our enemies tried to bury the Jewish future but our future was born again in the land of our forefathers. Here we built a base, and a new beginning of freedom, and hope and action."

Netanyahu also issued a sobering reminder that the Jewish people still faces an existential thre