Israel comes to a standstill to remember Holocaust victims

Israel came to a complete standstill at 10 a.m., as a two-minute siren rang out across the country for Yom HaShoah in honor of the six million Jewish victims of Nazi persecution.

Each year on this day, traffic on roads and highways throughout Israel grinds to a halt and pedestrians stop in place to bow their heads in silence.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials observed the sombre moment of remembrance at a wreath-laying ceremony at Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem.

Knesset members convened for the traditional “Unto Every Person There is a Name” ceremony, in which the names of Holocaust victims are read aloud.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people from around the world were to participate in the March of the Living, an annual procession around the former Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz in Poland.

This will be followed by an official ceremony commemorating the victims of the Birkenau camp – one of the 40 sub-camps in the Auschwitz complex where Jews were murdered en masse in gas chambers.

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European Jewish Congress calls on EU and UN leaders to cease its one-sided Israel bashing that has direct consequences for Jews in Europe

“The constant flow of Israel-bashing by senior leaders in the EU and the UN with little to no criticism of Hamas terror is clearly the main contributory factor to huge growth in antisemitism recorded by all European Jewish communities since October 7 last year,” said EJC President Dr Ariel Muzicant.