Israel came to a standstill as a two-minute-long siren sounded throughout the country on Thursday morning in memory of the 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis during World War II. Israelis began marking the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Yom Hashoah, on Wednesday night, with a ceremony at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and museum in Jerusalem. A wreath-laying ceremony took place at Yad Vashem on Thursday following the siren. At the Knesset on Thursday, German Bundestag president Bärbel Bas, on a symbolic visit to Israel, lit a memorial candle in memory of a woman from her hometown who was killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust. “I humbly lower my head in shame before the victims of the Holocaust. We cannot forget and we will not forget,” Bas said during the ceremony. “Our historic guilt brings with it obligations. We must fight with determination against antisemitism in all its forms and keep alive the memory and pass it to the younger generations.”
During the siren, most Israelis stop and stand still in their tracks with their heads bowed, and drivers stop their cars – even on the highway – and exit their cars to stand at attention. Ceremonies are held throughout the country including at schools and public institutions, including the “Unto Every Person There is a Name” ceremony at the Knesset, an official annual event during which lawmakers publicly read the names of Holocaust victims. “In Judaism, memory is not just a thing of the past but a layer that is added so every Jew continues to remember,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said during the Knesset ceremony. “The memory of the Holocaust is not just a memory, but a layer, part of the DNA that is passed down from generation to generation.”