Life in Israel stops to remember the Holocaust: Entire country comes to a halt for two minutes in honour of those murdered by the Nazis
- Sirens marked the beginning of two-minute silence at 9am local time today
- Vehicles and pedestrians come to a standstill and television is also silenced
- Palestinian leader calls Holocaust 'the most heinous crime against humanity'
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Traffic ground to a halt, pedestrians stood still and radio and television fell silent for two minutes today, as Israel remembered the six million Jews killed by the Nazis.
As sirens pierced
the air at 9am local time, the hustle and bustle on the streets of
Jerusalem and elsewhere paused as citizens marked Israel's Holocaust
Remembrance Day.
Buses and
cars stopped on roads and highways. Many people stepped out of their
vehicles and stood in silent observance of the solemn annual ritual.
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Solemn moment: Israelis stop their vehicles on
the highway and stand still in the Mediterranean coastal city of Tel
Aviv, as sirens sounded across Israel for a two-minute silence in memory
of Holocaust victims
Israelis come to a halt and stand in a central
Jerusalem market: This year's memorial is focused on the memory of more
than 400,000 Hungarian Jews who were massacred in 1944
Standstill: The annual event commemorates the six million Jews killed by the Nazi German Reich
The two-minute silence on a Tel Aviv beach: Top
Israeli officials, including PM Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon
Peres, were this morning to lay wreaths at a ceremony at Yad Vashem
Holocaust museumPedestrians stopped walking and stood still in contemplation.
Radio
and television stations, which have been filling the airwaves with
melancholic music and interviews with Holocaust survivors, also fell
silent.
This year's memorial is focused
on the memory of more than 400,000 Hungarian Jews who were massacred in
1944. Ceremonies are held around the country. Names of those killed are
read out at parliament later in the day.
Israel
began marking Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Day at sundown
last night with a ceremony at the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in
Jerusalem, which commemorates the Jews, killed by the Nazi regime
During
the morning, top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres, were to lay wreaths at a ceremony
at Yad Vashem.
Sombre: The Holocaust, known in Hebrew as Shoah,
meaning 'the catastrophe', was the systematic slaughter of six million
Jews in Nazi Germany and its occupied territories during the Second
World War
Sadness: Ceremonies marking Holocaust Martyrs
and Heroes Remembrance Day began at sundown last night at the Yad Vashem
memorial in Jerusalem, which commemorates the Jews killed by the Nazi
regime
Standstill: More than a million Jewish children
were killed in the genocide, as were about two million Jewish woman and
three million Jewish men, as well as millions of others who did not fit
the Aryan ideal of racial purity
Israelis stand at an outdoor café in central
Jerusalem: Every arm of Germany's bureaucracy was involved in the
logistics of the scheme, turning the Third Reich into what one scholar
has called 'a genocidal state'
It comes as the leader
of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank held out an olive branch
to Israel by describing the Holocaust's as 'the most heinous crime
against humanity' in modern times.
The
announcement by Mahmoud Abbas appeared to be an attempt to reach out to
the Israeli people at a time of deep crisis in longrunning, but so far
fruitless, peace talks.
But
Mr Netanyahu, Israel's hardline premier, responded by telling Mr Abbas
he must end his reconciliation with rival Palestinian group Hamas, the
elected government of Gaza.
Hamas
is viewed by Israel and its allies in the U.S. and the European Union
as a terrorist organisation committed to the destruction of the Jewish
state.
Contemplation: A woman stops her vehicle on a highway in the coastal city of Tel Aviv and stands still
Mourning: Holocaust remembrance day is the most
solemn in Israel's calendar with restaurants and clubs closed, and radio
and TV programming focused on Holocaust documentaries and interviews
with survivors
A cabbie stands next to his taxi during the two-minute silence, which is marked nationwide with a siren
Mr
Abbas made his comments during a conversation with American rabbi Marc
Schneier who visited his administration in Ramallah last week and they
were reported by Palestinian news agency WAFA yesterday.
It
quoted the West Bank leader as telling Mr Schneier that 'what happened
to the Jews in the Holocaust is the most heinous crime to have occurred
against humanity in the modern era.'
The
agency quoted Abbas as expressing his 'sympathy with the families of
the victims and many other innocent people who were killed'
Abbas
said the Holocaust was an expression of the idea of ethnic
discrimination and racism, and connected it to the Palestinian suffering
of today.
'The Palestinian
people, who suffer from injustice, oppression and [are] denied freedom
and peace, are the first to demand to lift the injustice and racism that
befell other peoples subjected to such crimes,' he said.
Solidarity: Mahmoud Abbas (left) described the
Holocaust as 'the most heinous crime against humanity'. His comments led
Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu (right) to urge him to end his
reconciliation with Hamas
The Holocaust, known in Hebrew as Shoah, meaning 'the catastrophe', was the systematic slaughter of six million Jews in Nazi Germany and its occupied territories during the Second World War.
More than
a million Jewish children were killed in the genocide, as were about
two million Jewish woman and three million Jewish men.
Other
targeted groups included homosexuals, people with disabilities,
political and religious dissidents, Romani gypsies, non-Europeans, and
Polish and Soviet civilians and prisoners of war.
Every
arm of Germany's bureaucracy was involved in the logistics of the
scheme, turning the Third Reich into what one Holocaust scholar has
called 'a genocidal state'.
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