Watch: Israel comes to a standstill as sirens blare for Holocaust Remembrance Day

Siren to be followed by ceremonies across the country.

By SAM SOKOL, JPOST.COM STAFF
Israel comes to a standstill as sirens blare for Holocaust Remembrance Day
At 10 a.m. on Thursday morning, Israel came to a standstill as sirens blared throughout the country to commemorate the 6 million Jewish victims of the Nazi regime. During the two minute siren, traffic came to a standstill and people stopped working to remember the Holocaust.  
The siren will be followed by a wreath-laying ceremony at Yad Vashem’s Warsaw Ghetto Square attended by President Reuven Rivlin, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and other senior governmental, military, and political figures. 
Afterward, at the Hall of Remembrance, a ceremonial reading of the names of Holocaust victims will take place.
On Thursday, Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog will speak at a memorial at the Ghetto Fighters’ House Museum.
Also Thursday, the Jewish National Fund and B’nai B’rith will hold a memorial at Jerusalem’s Martyrs’ Forest to posthumously honor a Greek rabbi who led partisans against the Nazis.
“The phenomenon of Jewish rescue and the instructive stories of thousands of Jews who labored to save their endangered brethren throughout Europe are yet to receive appropriate public recognition and resonance,” the two groups said in a statement.
On Wednesday night at the annual state Holocaust commemoration at Yad Vashem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel reserves the right to defend itself against a nuclear Iran as he compared in his address the Iranian regime with that of the Nazis.