Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day, Yom HaShoah. This is the first of a group of three days of commemoration established by various acts of the Knesset (Israeli Parliament). (The other two are Yom HaZikharon and Yom HaAtzma'ut, which are specifically Israeli holidays and are observed next week.) While Yom HaShoah generally falls on the 27th of Nissan, Israeli law specifies that it shouldn't be observed on Shabbat or on a Friday (as it would technically overlap with Shabbat). So this year, it falls on the 26th of Nissan.
Here's some good background on the history of the choice of this day and the substance of what's being memorialized.
It has been nearly 60 years since the Holocaust. To survivors, the Holocaust remains real and ever-present, but for some others, sixty years makes the Holocaust seem part of ancient history. Year-round we try to teach and inform others about the horrors of the Holocaust. We confront the questions of what happened? How did it happen? How could it happen? Could it happen again? We attempt to fight against ignorance with education and against disbelief with proof.
But there is one day in the year when we make a special effort to remember (Zachor). Upon this one day, we remember those that suffered, those that fought, and those that died. Six million Jews were murdered. Many families were completely decimated.
And here is an overview of the Holocaust, its commemoration in Israel and (yes, I'll go there) the uniqueness of the event from the Knesset website.
To say that the Holocaust of European Jewry (1933-1945) is an unprecedented episode in the history of the Jewish nation is not merely an understatement. It is an inaccuracy of the greatest magnitude, for such an event is unmatched in any recorded history. Millions of Jewish people suffered for twelve years under the terror of Nazi rule, where anti-Jewish propaganda, segregation, and then murder were the norm.
Though there are other cases in history of Genocide, the Holocaust was characterized by its methodical, systematic, efficient, almost scientific murder of any person with Jewish roots. Assimilation or conversion offered no protection in this situation.
At the core of the Holocaust we find modern anti-Semitism, the current version of Jew Hatred - that same phenomenon which appeared throughout the centuries, perhaps finding its most blatant manifestation with the medieval Church. The modern German anti-Semitism was based on racial ideology which stated that the Jews were sub-human (untermensch) while the Aryan race was ultimately superior. The Jew was systematically portrayed as a low-life, as untouchable rot (faulniserscheinung) and as the main cause of Germany's problems.
