'We will remember': IDF chief of staff issues statement ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day

In the letter, Zamir vowed to “remember the communities that were erased from the face of the earth; the voices of the boys and girls, the men and women, the elderly and the young, who were led to the crematoria and shot into killing pits; and the partisans and underground fighters who struggled and rose up even when all hope seemed lost.”

“We will remember the acts of bravery, the resistance, and the uprisings, the preservation of Jewish identity in the face of attempts to erase it; the final embraces and parting words - etched into memory and transformed into a living testament," he added.

Moreover, Zamir described the creation of the State of Israel as an act of defiance against the oppression of the past, and praised the IDF for “[acting] with determination and strength against Iran and its proxies, striking back and acting against those who for decades have called for the destruction of our state and its erasure from the Middle East.”

“Today, out of the harshest inferno, the Jewish people stand alive, free, and sovereign in their land," he wrote. "This is our clear answer to the world: no longer a people dependent on the mercy of others, no longer a defenseless people, but a free nation in its land that fights for its freedom and its future."

“Now it is our turn to be a vital link in the chain of defenders who came before us; to stand guard over the homeland, to defend our home, and to ensure that the memory of the past serves as our compass—and that never again.”

In Israel, Holocaust Memorial Day opens the evening prior with a state ceremony in Jerusalem and is followed the next morning by a two-minute siren at 10 a.m., allowing the public space and time to reflect.