--- description: Why April 16 is Holocaust Remembrance Day this year title: Holocaust Remembrance Day Marks image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt855ed351062daea4/6987ea2ccd1bba784e6f8d98/warsaw.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [History](/section/history/) ## History Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [remembrance](/tag/remembrance/) ## remembrance Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Why Holocaust Remembrance Day Is Today  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Apr 16, 2015 11:00 AM CUT  1943: Fire breaks out during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 1943: Fire breaks out during the Warsaw Ghetto UprisingKeystone—Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Apr 16, 2015 11:00 AM CUT The calendar year is full of dates that could be chosen for Holocaust Remembrance Day. Some, like January 27, the day of the liberation of Auschwitz, are [recognized](http://time.com/3679153/1945-report-dachau/ "undefined") internationally. And, as Allied forces moved through Europe liberating Nazi death camps throughout early 1945, those dates continue to amass. So why is this Thursday, April 16, marked as Holocaust Remembrance Day in the United States and elsewhere? As the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum [explains](http://www.ushmm.org/remember/days-of-remembrance/remembrance-day-calendar "undefined"), the date corresponds with the 27th of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar, which in 1943 — on April 19 in the Western calendar — marked the beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Though the date may appear to move around from year to year, it’s always on that anniversary. The once-vibrant Jewish community of Warsaw was forced into a ghetto on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur in 1940, stuffed into an area scarcely bigger than a square mile, deprived and diminished and finally deported, as TIME’s Lance Morrow explained in a [review](http://time.com/vault/issue/2002-10-28/page/67/ "undefined") of a 2002 book of eyewitness accounts of the infamous ghetto. As the population of the ghetto dwindled, some who remained began to organize for combat. On April 19, 1943, as the Jewish holiday of Passover approached, Nazi forces entered the ghetto with the intention of sending all of its remaining residents to camps — only to encounter the [uprising](http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005188 "undefined"). The Jews of Warsaw managed to fight back for weeks. It would take years before the Nazi forces were finally suppressed in Warsaw and elsewhere, but the uprising was nearly immediately a touchstone for remembrance. By 1948, on the fifth anniversary, TIME [reported](http://time.com/vault/issue/1948-05-03/page/30 "undefined") on one such memorial: --- > “” --- **_Read the full 1948 account, here in the TIME Vault:_** [Shining Granite](http://time.com/vault/issue/1948-05-03/page/30/ "undefined") _Read next:_ [_Attacks Against Jews Spiked in 2014, Israeli Researchers Say_](http://time.com/3823928/antisemitic-attacks-2014/?iid=time%5Freadnext "undefined") ### Color Photos of Hitler Among the Crowds  Adolf Hitler greets the cheering throng at a rally in 1937. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg, Germany, 1937. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Austrians cheer Adolf Hitler during his 1938 campaign (before the Anschluss) to unite Austria and Germany. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Austrians cheer Adolf Hitler during his 1938 campaign (before the Anschluss) to unite Austria and Germany. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Crowds greet a saluting Adolf Hitler at a cornerstone ceremony at a Volkswagen factory, 1938. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Crowds greet a saluting Adolf Hitler at a cornerstone ceremony at a Volkswagen factory, 1938. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Crowds at a cornerstone ceremony at a Volkswagen factory, 1938. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Torchlight rally honoring Adolf Hitler's 50th birthday, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Hundreds of thousands gather at a harvest festival and Nazi Party rally in Germany, 1937. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Guests of honor at a military demonstration for Hitler's 50th birthday celebration in Berlin. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  A crowd cheers in Florence, Italy, during Hitler's state visit in 1938. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Italian fascists during Adolf Hitler's 1938 state visit. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  A crowd in Munich, Germany, around the time of the 1938 Munich Conference. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Paying tribute to Hitler during celebrations for his 50th birthday, Berlin, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images [_Listen to the most important stories of the day._](http://time.com/newsletter/the-brief/autoplay/?xid=spl-fullbrief-article "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3813714/holocaust-remembrance-day-warsaw/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3813714/holocaust-remembrance-day-warsaw/"},"headline":"Why Holocaust Remembrance Day Is Today","datePublished":"2015-04-16T11:00:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:04:39.020Z","description":"The date marks the beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising","url":"https://time.com/3813714/holocaust-remembrance-day-warsaw/","keywords":["remembrance","Holocaust","World War II","WWII"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt855ed351062daea4/6987ea2ccd1bba784e6f8d98/warsaw.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt855ed351062daea4/6987ea2ccd1bba784e6f8d98/warsaw.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Ghetto Uprising","caption":"Ghetto Uprising","creditText":"Keystone—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/remembrance/","name":"remembrance"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3813714/holocaust-remembrance-day-warsaw/","name":"Why Holocaust Remembrance Day Is Today"}}]}] ```