hi! for those of you who are unaware, Yom HaShoah begins tonight at sundown (april 7th) and continues until thursday night (april 8th). here's a thread of what Yom HaShoah is and why it's important!

Yom HaShoah is a day of commemoration and remembrance for the six million Jews and five million others who were murdered in the Holocaust. it marks the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and is one week after the end of Passover.

why do we need a day of remembrance? because the Holocaust was the systematic and state-sponsored genocide of the Jewish people. millions of Jews were slaughtered in concentration and death camps, were segregated in ghettoes, and our culture was deliberately eradicated.

we need a day of remembrance because the Holocaust was a horrific atrocity that relied upon the silence/neutrality of the population. the aftermath of the Holocaust continuously affects Jews worldwide, and antisemitic Nazi ideologies are still widespread.

as Elie Wiesel put it, "neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." it is crucial that everyone is educated about the Holocaust, and that everyone is VOCAL about it never happening again.

here are some resources to further educate yourself on Yom HaShoah and the Holocaust. if you are a gentile, please speak up, because your silence is much louder than you realize!
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-holocaust 
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/yom-ha-shoah-holocaust-memorial-day