Jewish Holidays

Yom HaShoah

Holocaust Remembrance Day

“There are cultures that forget the past and there are cultures that are held captive by the past. Jews do neither. We carry the past with us as we will carry the memory of the Shoah with us, for as long as the Jewish people exists, as Moses carried the bones of Joseph, and as the Levites carried the fragments of the shattered tablets of stone. Those fragments of memory help make us who we are.” — Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

When is Yom HaShoah 2026

27 Nisan 5786

Begins: Sundown on Monday 13 April 2026
Ends: Nightfall on Tuesday 14 April 2026

Videos on Yom HaShoah

70 Days for 70 Years

Watch Rabbi Sacks’ speech from the 70 Days for 70 Years U.S. launch in New York. Rabbi Sacks was deeply honoured to become...

Address at National Yom HaShoah Commemoration Ceremony

On Sunday 7th April 2013, Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks delivered the keynote address at the National Yom HaShoah Commemoration Ceremony...

Message for Holocaust Memorial Day (2012)

Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks recorded this message for Holocaust Memorial Day, 27th January 2012, on the silence that haunted him...

Animations

Faith After the Holocaust

In 1995 Rabbi Sacks recorded a pre-Rosh Hashanah programme for the BBC during a visit to Auschwitz (Remember Us For...

Holocaust Curriculum Resources

Rabbi Sacks answers some deep questions frequently asked about the Holocaust. This series, in partnership with the Holocaust Educational Trust, has been made possible thanks to the generous support of Richard Harris.

Where can you find hope in the history of the Holocaust?

In April 2020, to coincide with Yom HaShoah, the day in the Jewish calendar dedicated to Holocaust remembrance, and the...

How does the Holocaust impact interfaith relations today?

In April 2020, to coincide with Yom HaShoah, the day in the Jewish calendar dedicated to Holocaust remembrance, and the...

How do you connect the Holocaust with the establishment of the State of Israel?

In April 2020, to coincide with Yom HaShoah, the day in the Jewish calendar dedicated to Holocaust remembrance, and the...

Do you think it’s ever possible to forgive the perpetrators of the Holocaust?

In April 2020, to coincide with Yom HaShoah, the day in the Jewish calendar dedicated to Holocaust remembrance, and the...

What is the difference between vengeance and justice?

In April 2020, to coincide with Yom HaShoah, the day in the Jewish calendar dedicated to Holocaust remembrance, and the...

What about a statute of limitations?

In April 2020, to coincide with Yom HaShoah, the day in the Jewish calendar dedicated to Holocaust remembrance, and the...

A Just Punishment for the Nazis?

In April 2020, to coincide with Yom HaShoah, the day in the Jewish calendar dedicated to Holocaust remembrance, and the...

Do you think the Holocaust represented a failure of humanity?

In April 2020, to coincide with Yom HaShoah, the day in the Jewish calendar dedicated to Holocaust remembrance, and the...

Does God care About Individual Lives, or did He Only Ensure the Jewish People as a Nation Weren’t Entirely Destroyed?

In April 2020, to coincide with Yom HaShoah, the day in the Jewish calendar dedicated to Holocaust remembrance, and the...

Do You Have Faith in Humanity After the Holocaust?

In April 2020, to coincide with Yom HaShoah, the day in the Jewish calendar dedicated to Holocaust remembrance, and the...

Where Was God During the Holocaust?

In April 2020, to coincide with Yom HaShoah, the day in the Jewish calendar dedicated to Holocaust remembrance, and the...

What is theologically unique about the Holocaust?

In April 2020, to coincide with Yom HaShoah, the day in the Jewish calendar dedicated to Holocaust remembrance, and the...

Practically speaking, is there something unique about the Holocaust?

In April 2020, to coincide with Yom HaShoah, the day in the Jewish calendar dedicated to Holocaust remembrance, and the...

Should a Jewish theological response to the Holocaust include issues of justice?

In April 2020, to coincide with Yom HaShoah, the day in the Jewish calendar dedicated to Holocaust remembrance, and the...

Should the Holocaust be a key ingredient of our Jewish identity?

In April 2020, to coincide with Yom HaShoah, the day in the Jewish calendar dedicated to Holocaust remembrance, and the...

How did the Holocaust affect your personal faith?

In April 2020, to coincide with Yom HaShoah, the day in the Jewish calendar dedicated to Holocaust remembrance, and the...

What do you think the Jewish theological response to the Holocaust should be?

In April 2020, to coincide with Yom HaShoah, the day in the Jewish calendar dedicated to Holocaust remembrance, and the...

How Can I Have Faith That God is Within Each of Us and at the Same Time Fail to have Faith in Humanity?

In April 2020, to coincide with Yom HaShoah, the day in the Jewish calendar dedicated to Holocaust remembrance, and the...

Can we trust people other than ourselves?

In April 2020, to coincide with Yom HaShoah, the day in the Jewish calendar dedicated to Holocaust remembrance, and the...

BBC Pre-Rosh Hashanah Programmes

Remember us for Life (1995)

Watch Rabbi Sacks' Rosh Hashanah programme, broadcast by the BBC in 1995. Transcript Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the great...

Read about Yom HaShoah

From The Archives

Essays and writings from Rabbi Sacks' extensive body of work

ARTICLES

Why we all need Holocaust Memorial Day

Today, Holocaust Memorial Day, will mark the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. This year we will also remember...

ARTICLES, ARTICLES

The responsibility of remembrance grows heavier still on this generation and those not yet born

On Sunday we will commemorate Yom HaShoah, the day set aside in the Jewish calendar for Holocaust remembrance. Always a...

REFLECTIONS

A Prayer for Yom HaShoah

Today, on Yom HaShoah, we remember the victims of the greatest crime of man against man – the young, the...

SPEECHES

Address at Holocaust Memorial Day Trust commemorative event

In January 2013 Rabbi Sacks delivered an address at the national Holocaust Memorial Day Trust's commemorative event for the final...

ARTICLES, ARTICLES

A call to remember from the depths of our Jewish soul

Our minds may be occupied at present with thoughts of matzah and all things Pesach, but this time next Wednesday evening and...

SPEECHES, STATEMENTS, SPEECHES

Fragments of Memory

This speech was delivered by Rabbi Sacks at the National Holocaust Memorial Commemoration Ceremony in Hyde Park, London in May...

ARTICLES, ARTICLES

From Grief to Hope: A Religious Shoah Message

For the past two years, we have been engaged in a major experiment in Anglo-Jewry: finding a way of giving...

ARTICLES, ARTICLES

Yom Hashoah: Hope Out of Grief

The echoing irony of the Holocaust is that we have still not found an adequate way of giving its remembrance...

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Faith in God after the Holocaust may be hard; but faith in humanity is harder still

Today is National Holocaust Memorial Day, and this year the focus will be on one small group of people in...

SPEECHES

Reflections from Auschwitz

The Chief Rabbi, Sir Jonathan Sacks, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, visited the former Nazi death camp...

CREDO

‘Never Again’ - but will we ever learn the lessons of history?

Of the 6,000 languages spoken today, only one is truly universal: the language of tears. This weekend, tears will be...

SPEECHES, ARTICLES, SPEECHES

We Must Never Forget the Holocaust

(From an address by Rabbi Sacks marking Yom HaShoah in 2000) The Holocaust has become more than a Jewish tragedy....

REFLECTIONS

A million shoes saved, a million lives destroyed

Reflections from Rabbi Sacks’ following his first visit to Auschwitz in 1995 Until now, I’ve never been to Auschwitz. For...