El Male Rachamim – Holocaust Memorial Prayer
The Holocaust, Nazi persecution of other groups, and subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur had specific impacts on some faith communities, meaning HMD has a special resonance for many faiths. HMD can be marked by all faith communities.
El Male Rachamim (God full of compassion) is a Jewish prayer for the departed that is recited at funeral services, on visiting the graves of relatives (especially during the holy month of Elul), and after having been called up to the reading of the Torah on the anniversary of the death of a close relative. The prayer originated in the Jewish communities of Western and Eastern Europe and since the end of the Holocaust, the prayer has been adapted as a memorial prayer for the victims of the Holocaust and Nazi persecution of other groups.
O God, Who art full of compassion, who dwellest on high, grant perfect rest in Thy
Divine Presence to all the souls of our holy and pure brethren whose blood was spilt
by the murderers in Auschwitz, Belzec, Bergen Belsen, Dachau, Majdanek, Sobibor,
Treblinka and other extermination camps in Europe; who were killed, strangled,
burned and buried alive for the sanctification for Thy Name. For whose souls we now
pray. May their resting place be in the Garden of Eden, may the Master of Mercy
shelter them in the shadow of His wings for eternity; and may He bind their souls in
the Bond of Life.
HASHEM is their heritage, and may they repose in peace in their resting places.
Now let us say: Amen