Dignitaries from Asia, Europe and North and South America Remember Holocaust Victims

29 October 2015

Despite the worrying events in Israel during the month of October, Yad Vashem continued to host dignitaries, educators and other guests from across the globe, underlining its role as the world's center for Holocaust Remembrance and Education.

Honored recent guests include: the Presidents of India, Lithuania, Georgia and Honduras; the Chief Executive of Hong Kong; the Vice President and Foreign Minister of Panama; the Foreign Minister of Romania; the President of the German Federal Council (Bundestag); and the Mayor of New York City. Each guest toured the Holocaust History Museum, participated in memorial ceremony in the Hall of Remembrance, visited the Children's Memorial and signed the Yad Vashem Guest Book.

"We must always remember the souls of the people who were lost (in the Holocaust)," remarked Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili at the conclusion of his visit. "We must also pray to G-d that he protect us from this type of thing happening again."

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was visiting Israel as part of the 30th International Mayors Conference. He wrote in the Yad Vashem Guest Book: "We must always remember and ensure that 'Never Again" is an idea we live by."

Lithuania President Dalia Grybauskaite (right) lays a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance.

Bundesrat President Volker Bouffier contemplates a display in the Holocaust History Museum.

President of Georgia Giorgi Margvelashvili touring the Holocaust History Museum, which attracts almost one million visitors every year.

Mayor of New York City Bill de Blasio in the Hall of Names. To date, Yad Vashem has gathered the names and brief biographies of some 4.5 million individual Holocaust victims.

At the end of his recent visit, the Hong Kong Chief Executive met a group of Chinese post-graduate students attending the sixth annual Seminar for Educators from China at Yad Vashem's International School for Holocaust Studies

President Mukherjee of India rekindled the eternal flame at a special memorial ceremony held last week in the Hall of Remembrance

Minister Bogdan Aurescu, Foreign Minister of Romania (left), is guided through the Holocaust History Museum by Dr. Alexander Avram, Director of the Hall of Names

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio also visited the temporary exhibition "Stars Without a Heaven: Children in the Holocaust" in the Exhibitions Pavilion

The Vice President and Foreign Minister of Panama, Isabel Saint Malo de Alvarado, was guided through the Holocaust History Museum. The Museum contains over 100 clips of survivor testimonies.

The President of the Republic of Honduras Juan Orlando Alvarado Hernandez (left) at the entrance to the Holocaust History Museum. In the background is "The World that Was," the first gallery of the Museum, comprising a unique 13-m high video art