Commemorating the Holocaust, Yom ha-Shoah

Igros Moshe (YD IV #57.11) The reason for not establishing a day of fasting and prayers to commemorate the murdered of the Holocaust 

Question In the matter of the Decree due to our many sins which resulted in the murder of 10 times 600,000 through Hitler and his associates their memory should be erased. It would seem appropriate that there is a need to establish a particular day for fasting and prayer. You are astonished that nothing has yet to be done. Answer  In the Kinos which are said by all Jews on Tisha B’Av, it is explained there that a special day was not established for fasting and and mourning for the decrees of the Crusades, which were the decrees in all European countries where most of the Jews lived, and several towns and villages were destroyed, and it was named  Tach v’Tat after the years it happened. Also in Israel they killed many during the Crusades. The reason is they didn’t is because we are not to establish another day  for fasting and mourning. Instead the tragedies of the Crusades are to be mentioned in the Kinos of Tisha B‘Av  For this reason we are slso not to establish a special day to commemorate the decrees that happened in our time.  Rather it is to be included in all the tragedies that have happened during this long  Galus. It is thus not like the Chemelniki Massacres that were done by Cosacks in the Ukraine and Poland for which a day of fasting and Selichos was established on the 10th of Sivan since that wasn’t a general decree like the Churban and Galus but it occurred only in a part of one country. In addition tragedies of  Tach v’Tat were not committed by the government and therefore are not the result of Galus and the Churban but rather those who rebelled against the government.  It is not considered a government action and thus an aspect of Galus  since the government attempted to defend the Jews. The only connection to Galus is that the Jews received punishment for their sins which deserved Galus. Thus it was only relevant to make a decree of fasting and Selichos for only those places. In contrast the decrees of Hitler applied to all Jews since he conquered the main places where Jews lived and in these places he murdered all the Jews who were there and he intended to conquer the whole world. It was impossible to stop him untl G-d hasd mercy on us. Therefore it was a decree against all Jews and thus it is to be viewed as an extension of the Churban and Galus for which we are not to establish another day of mourning as is stated in the Kinos.