Netanyahu and wife meet Holocaust survivors
Netanyahu and wife meet Holocaust survivorsKobi Gideon/GPO

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara met Tuesday (Tuesday) with the Holocaust survivors who lit torches at the opening ceremony of Holocaust Martyrs 'and Heroes' Remembrance Day events at Yad Vashem Tuesday evening.

The torchbearers told the prime minister and his wife stories of their heroism and survival during the war, as well as the stories of their immigration to Israel.

Prime Minister Netanyahu told the survivors, "Every year we meet with you and with your predecessors (former torchbearers), we are always moved by this encounter. To call you heroes of the Holocaust, to me, it is the right thing. Survival comes from heroism. Without inner strength it would not have been so."

Sara Netanyahu told the survivors, "Each and every year we are excited about the meeting [with Holocaust survivors]. We are so happy to hear from each of you that you say you are happy. It makes me happy to hear that you have built families, you have children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Each of you has done things, but the fact that you survived, it is in my opinion that one of the greatest things - you have seen that you are able to stand and survive. You were all heroes, who went through everything with strength and with such a great and miraculous will to live. I'm sure your spirit has moved on to children, grandchildren, and the great-grandchildren. Thank you for everything you've done for the country."

The torchbearers arrived with a family member who accompanied them: sons, daughters, and grandchildren. Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev also participated in the meeting.

The torchbearers this year are: Raoul Teitelbaum, born in 1931 in Prizren, Kosovo. Taia Friedman, born in 1924 in Czernowitz, Romania (now Ukraine). Miriam Lapid, born in 1933 in Debenter, Holland. Abba Naor, born in 1928 in Kaunas (Kovno), Lithuania. Shmuel Bugler, born in 1929 in the village of Budrogkerstor in Hungary. Yissachar Dov Goldstein, born in 1929 in Bratislava, Slovakia.