Jerusalem: Israel came to a standstill on Thursday as sirens wailed across the country to commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day in memory of the six million Jews killed by Nazi Germany during World War II. Vehicles halted on streets and highways as Israelis stepped out and stood on the roads with heads bowed down.
Schools, public institutions and army bases will also organise a series of ceremonies to pay respects to the victims of the Holocaust with about 10,000 people expected to participate later in the day in the 'March of the Living' in Poland led by Israeli President Reuven Rivlin.
The Israeli parliament - the Knesset - will hold its annual ceremony - 'Unto Every Person There is a Name - in which lawmakers recite names of victims of the Nazis for nearly two hours. A similar ceremony will also be held at the Yad Vashem (Holocaust Museum) in Jerusalem. Israel Defence Forces chief Gadi Eisenkot and the heads of spy agency Mossad and internal security agency Shin Bet will also participate in the March of the Living event in Poland, a three-kilometre march from the main Auschwitz concentration camp to the Birkenau extermination camp that housed the gas chambers and crematoria where the victims were killed.