Clinton Visits Israel’s Holocaust Memorial : Tribute: The President helps Marines lay a wreath at the eternal flame.

President Clinton made his last stop in Israel on Friday with a visit to Yad Vashem, the somber hilltop memorial to the 6 million Jews who died in the Holocaust.

Accompanied by President Ezer Weizman, Clinton, looking pensive, stood inside the dimly lit Hall of Remembrance and listened to a children’s choir sing the haunting “Eli, Eli” hymn, written by Hamma Senesh, an Israeli who died in 1944 after she parachuted behind Nazi lines in Hungary and was captured by the Germans.

The President, wearing a traditional Jewish skullcap, bowed his head as a special memorial prayer was recited.

Clinton helped two Marine honor guards lay a wreath at the eternal flame that burns in memory of the victims of Nazi genocide. He then paid a private visit to Yad Vashem’s memorial to the children who died in the Holocaust.

Emerging from the children’s memorial, Clinton walked to the sculpture of Januscz Korszacz, a Pole who saved thousands of children during World War II. The President signed Yad Vashem’s guest book at a podium placed before the sculpture.

“I wrote that today we are one step closer to the time when the people of Israel can live together in peace with all of her neighbors, a time when never again will they suffer death and the events commemorated in this memorial here, simply because of their race and their faith. May God let it come to pass,” Clinton replied when reporters asked what he had inscribed.

Summing up his visit to Israel, Clinton said: “It was a wonderful visit. I was deeply touched by the reception from the Israeli people, and I was grateful for the opportunity to address the Knesset. I will return to America ready to redouble my support and that of the American people, and I am determined to continue until there is a comprehensive peace.”