Czech cities to read out victims' names for Holocaust Remembrance Day

Twenty-four cities across Czechia will today read the names of Jews who lost their lives in the Holocaust during World War II, as part of Holocaust Remembrance Day, which is known as Yom HaShoah in Israel. 

Organized by the Institute of Terezín Initiatives, students will act out in the town of Terezín the stories of four Czech families that passed through the Terezín ghetto.

In Prague, the names of the victims of the Holocaust will be read on Jiřího z Poděbrad Square, in Brno on Moravské náměstí by the Governor's Palace, and in Olomouc on Horní náměstí.

Survivors’ and victims’ families, ambassadors of several countries, representatives of Jewish and Roma organizations, and some politicians will take part in the public commemoration.

Holocaust Remembrance Day marks almost exactly 80 years since the start of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, when Jews refused to surrender to Nazi police.

Today’s event follows a commemorative march that took place in Prague 1 on Sunday, in which several hundred people walked from Old Town Square to the Wallenstein Garden to mark the Jewish victims of the Holocaust.

On Sunday, Czechia’s head of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem Mojmír Kallus said: “We consider it alarming that Jews now, more than 75 years after the Holocaust, do not feel safe in a number of European countries again.”