Modi visits Yad Vashem Memorial

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Yad Vashem Memorial here and honoured the victims of the Holocaust.

Mr. Modi was accompanied by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Israel’s largest Holocaust memorial.

“So that the light of humanity always shines through us. PM pays homage to 6 million lives lost in the Holocaust at Yad Vashem Memorial,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay tweeted, along with the pictures of Mr. Modi at the memorial.

Memorial ceremony

The two leaders walked through the Hall of Names, containing photographs and names of the Holocaust victims, and the Children’s Memorial and participated in a memorial ceremony in the Hall of Remembrance.

Following the visit, Netanyahu suggested that they visit Binyamin Ze’ev (Theodor) Herzl’s grave and Mr. Modi agreed to it.

Theodor Herzl was an Austro-Hungarian journalist, playwright, political activist and writer, who was one of the fathers of the modern political Zionism, a movement to establish a Jewish homeland.

Yad Vashem started as an organisation in 1953 on the slopes of the Mount of Remembrance near Jerusalem, as a form of reference to future generations, documenting the memory of Holocaust victims and the history of the Jewish people during the tragic time.

The museum occupies over 4,200 square metres — mainly underground — and emphasises the experiences of the individual victims through original artefacts, survivor testimonies and personal possessions.

Shaped as a prism penetrating the mountain, the new Yad Vashem opened in 2005. Its architecture sets the atmosphere for the nine chilling galleries of interactive historical displays.