Yom Hashoah was instituted in 1950 to commemorate the 6,000,000 Jews executed in the Holocaust. I have included a service that I have used in the past to honor this day. If you listen to the song and read the full service, you will never be the same. The first part goes like this:
Leader: Today we are observing Yom Hashoah, the Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust. This year, Yom Hashoah falls on Sunday, April 23rd.
A little more than one generation ago one-third of the world’s Jewish population was butchered by humanity gone mad. This unthinkable historical fact occurred in 20th century Europe; in a civilization shaped by western religious values, moral and intellectual traditions. For the Nazis, mass murder and the exploitation of human corpses became a civic duty and obliterated society’s moral, religious and intellectual traditions. Humanity became irreparably stained with guilt, for the persecutor, no longer considering his victim human, ceased to be recognizably human. And the world, so deaf and so indifferent to the atrocity, ultimately became an accomplice.
The German mind followed the path of the philosophy of moral nihilism to its logical end point where nothing was of value. God was dead. Humanity, created in the image of God, and specifically the Jew whose very presence pointed to God, became to the Nazi, an intolerable reminder. In the insanity of their revolt against God, a revolt against reason was born and a journey toward limitless pursuit of the irrational was tragically launched. For the sad truth is, that the same Beast, which was unleashed by the Nazi’s, lives even today somewhere in each one of us. And it is true that if the world will not learn from history, then sadly, it is doomed to repeat it.
To set the tone for this remembrance service, listen to the following lyrics as Messianic Believer and Musician Ted Pearce sings “The Forgotten People.”
The Forgotten People
(A Holocaust Remembrance Anthem)
By Yochanan Ben Yehuda & Ted Pearce
iStand with Israel
Introduction: Nazi Audio Broadcast with Rudolf Hess (Hilter’s Deputy) speaking …
Six Million People crying from the grave//Invisible People calling out their names//Beautiful People taken from their home//Scattered People nowhere to go.
And the Mothers and Fathers and the Sons and Daughters//They were carried away in trains//Their bodies were broken and beaten and burned//And their ashes fell down like rain//They were branded and a number and a yellow star//And paraded around in shame//They called it a crime, “To be born a Jew”//And in the Name of God they were slain.
Blessed People who tried to help//While evil people schemed among themselves//Everyday People who ignored the news//Indifferent People sitting in the pews.
And the Mothers and Fathers and the Sons and Daughters//They were carried away in trains//Their bodies were broken and beaten and burned//And their ashes fell down like rain//They were branded and a number and a yellow star//And paraded around in shame//They called it a crime, “To be born a Jew”//And in the Name of God they were slain.
The Forgotten People, calling out, calling out, calling out//Six Million People crying out, crying out, crying out//The Forgotten People, calling out, calling out, calling out//Six Million People crying out, crying out, crying out.
(Instrumental Interlude)
It’s time to wake up from the pleasant sleep//Time to see your nakedness and begin to weep.//Sound the Alarm! Shouting “Never Again”//Let the righteous revolution begin//History must never repeat itself
So lift your voices and take a stand//United as one “For Zion’s Sake”//Undivided as the Nations Rage
We’ve got to rise like an Army in “The Name”//For the Nation that was born in a day.
The Forgotten People, calling out, calling out, calling out//Six Million People crying out, crying out, crying out//The Forgotten People, calling out, calling out, calling out//Six Million People crying out, crying out, crying out. (Repeat)
Can you hear them crying out again?
Click here for the full Yom Hashoah Service.