Both the Israel Police and Fire and Rescue workers spent the week leading up to Israel’s Yom Hashoa -Holocaust Memorial Day – meeting with Holocaust survivors throughout the country and hearing lectures about it from experts and survivors alike. Beginning Monday night, Yom Hashoa is observed on the anniversary of the end of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising – on the Hebrew Calendar – when the Jews there fought back against the German Army and this year marks its 80th anniversary.

Every year on Israel’s Holocaust Memorial Day for the Heroes and Martyrs, the Israel Police hold memorial ceremonies and candle lighting in memory of those who perished, alongside survivors and their families. This is in order to commemorate the fallen and fulfill our obligation to remember and not forget.

The Israel Police have had a special relationship with Holocaust survivors in Israel for many years. And this year police and Border Police units, in cooperation with various organizations that aid Holocaust survivors, hosted survivors and heard their personal stories while providing them with assistance and love.

In the accompanying photo, the police officers of the Operations Wing, including its air formation, sabotage formation, patrol formations, special forces units, the Border Police and others stand with Gita Kauffman, a holocaust survivor.

Gita Kauffman was born in Romania in 1937, where she grew up with her parents. When she was two years old the German Army invaded Poland sparking the start of World War II. During the war, Gita and her parents were sent to the Edrinich ghetto in the Transnistria region known as the “Kingdom of Death.”

Gita shared with the police her childhood memories, the stories she heard from her family members and the route she followed after the war until she finally came to live in Israel in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War.

Kauffman lost dozens of her family members, including her mother, grandmother, uncles and aunts, in the Holocaust. Later, Kauffman married since deceased husband Michael and together they started a family in Israel.

“I survived twice” she declared.

Head of the Operations Division of the Israel Police, Chief Sigal Bar Zvi said, “Our service in the police force of a Jewish and democratic country embodies within it the application of the lessons of the Holocaust.”

Bar Zvi went on to say that the memory of the Holocaust accompanies police officers – and all Israelis – every day, “pouring meaning and value into all our actions. We get to wear uniforms and fulfill the ‘never again’ commitment in our service.”

“History and heritage inspire us and the testimonies of the survivors are the source of our strength from which we draw our commitment to protect the State of Israel and its citizens,” he added. “Today we bow our heads in sorrow in memory of the six million who perished and salute the survivors of the Holocaust for the memory, values, strength and spirit they instill in us.”

As for the Israel Fire and Rescue department, during the past week, its members held meetings with Holocaust survivors and their children for sessions of learning and remembrance about the Holocaust. They also held commemorations for the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising at Jerusalem district stations.

Lecturers from Israel’s national Holocaust Memorial and Museum in Jerusalem Yad Vashem, which coordinated the week’s events, came to the various fire stations and delivered what were described as “fascinating and important” lectures to the firefighters and commanders on the topic of the Holocaust remembrance, with an emphasis on the rescue and heroism of Jews as well as the Righteous Among the Nations during the Holocaust.

Tafser Mishna Shai Nehemiah, commander of the National Station in Jerusalem, said, “

At a time when the last Holocaust survivors in Israel are dwindling day by day, it is important for us, as Israel’s fire and rescue system, to remember those who perished in the Holocaust, and not to forget for a moment the inspiring heroism of the ghetto fighters and partisans, who, in inhumane conditions, with supreme bravery managed to fight with their meager forces against the Nazi oppressor and his assistants”

Image - Yad Vashem