People stand in silence as a siren sounds to commemorate Holocaust victims along a highway near Tel Aviv, Israel, on April 14, 2026. Israel on Monday started commemorating its annual Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day with an official torch-lighting ceremony in Jerusalem at the country's Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem. Remembrance activities will continue through Tuesday, featuring a wreath-laying ceremony at Yad Vashem, among others. (Photo by Gil Cohen Magen/Xinhua)
JERUSALEM, April 13 (Xinhua) -- Israel on Monday started commemorating its annual Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day with an official torch-lighting ceremony here at the country's Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem.
The ceremony began at nightfall. Holocaust survivors lit six torches in memory of the 6 million Jews who died at the hands of Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II.
Addressing the gathering, Israeli President Isaac Herzog called for national unity. "History continues to teach us the heavy price of internal strife and division," he said.
Remembrance activities will continue through Tuesday, featuring a wreath-laying ceremony at Yad Vashem, among others. At 10:00 a.m. local time (0700 GMT), a nationwide two-minute siren will sound, bringing the country to a standstill in honor of the victims. Other memorial events are scheduled to take place in schools and workplaces across Israel.
Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics announced Sunday that there are about 111,000 Holocaust survivors and victims of antisemitic persecution during World War II currently living in Israel, 60 percent of which are women.
This year's Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorates the 81st anniversary of the Soviet army's liberation of Auschwitz, which exposed the full scale of the Nazis' extermination plan against Europe's Jewish population. ■
People stand in silence as a siren sounds to commemorate Holocaust victims along a highway near Tel Aviv, Israel, on April 14, 2026. Israel on Monday started commemorating its annual Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day with an official torch-lighting ceremony in Jerusalem at the country's Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem.
Remembrance activities will continue through Tuesday, featuring a wreath-laying ceremony at Yad Vashem, among others. (Photo by Gil Cohen Magen/Xinhua)
People stand in silence as a siren sounds to commemorate Holocaust victims in Tel Aviv, Israel, on April 14, 2026. Israel on Monday started commemorating its annual Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day with an official torch-lighting ceremony in Jerusalem at the country's Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem.
Remembrance activities will continue through Tuesday, featuring a wreath-laying ceremony at Yad Vashem, among others. (Gideon Markowicz/JINI via Xinhua)
