‘Behind Each of These Names Are Stories’: Yom HaShoah Ceremonies Held Across Globe to Commemorate Jews Who Perished in Holocaust

Ceremonies were held in Jewish communities across the globe on Tuesday to commemorate Yom HaShoah, Israel’s annual national Holocaust remembrance day.

At the Shoah Memorial in Paris, Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) Executive Director of European Affairs Shannon Seban participated in reciting the names of all Jews deported from France to the Nazi death camps during World War II.

The solemn gathering, a continuous 24-hour public reading, is organized each year by the Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah, in partnership with Judaïsme en Mouvement (JEM), the Association of the Sons and Daughters of Jewish Deportees from France (FFDJF), Shoah Memorial, Consistoire of Paris, and Central Consistoire.

Seban attended the event alongside a group of women from Langage de Femmes (“Women’s Dialogue”), a French interfaith organization dedicated to fighting racism and antisemitism. Earlier this year, Seban also visited Auschwitz with a Langage de Femmes delegation.

“More than ever, at a time when antisemitism has become part of everyday life in Europe, we have a responsibility to preserve the memory of the Jews of this continent, where the greatest massacre of Jews took place,” Seban said on Tuesday.

“Reading these names is a reminder of where hatred of the other can lead and that ‘Never Again’ is not just a slogan, but a duty,” she added.

“Behind each of these names are stories — lives taken and destinies shattered by the world’s oldest hatred,” she emphasized. “Remembering them is not only a moral obligation — it is at the very core of our mission at the Combat Antisemitism Movement.”