Holocaust Remembrance Day
Holocaust Remembrance DayFlash 90

Due to COVID-19 restrictions not yet lifted, and following a long period of time in which social distance has become a everyday reality globally, many social initiatives attempting to commemorate the memories of those lost during the Holocaust have made use of technological tools in order to continue this important mission.

The annual March of the Living, a three-kilometer walk from Auschwitz to Birkenau, was filmed in advance using a green screen featuring scenes of Auschwitz-Birkenau, and was attended by prominent figures such as President Reuven Rivlin, Israel's coronavirus czar Professor Nachman Ash, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla and others. An online rendering of the on-site commemoration allowed the global public to personalize plaques that will be placed on the digitized train tracks in front of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

This year, the Zikaron BaSalon (literally "memory in the living room") initiative pairing survivors to listeners in private homes is offering a virtual reality experience during which participants are invited to enter a large space with VR glasses, where four testimonials are shown via a hologram with a background of a living room. All testimonials span approximately 10 minutes. The project is in coordination with the NeVeR again VR project.

All official national events taking place during Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah) can viewed via the YouTube pages of all the central venues. The opening ceremony for Yom Hashoah, which aired Wednesday night on the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation channel, racked up 38,541 views.