Israel remembers Holocaust
2005-05-05 11:30
Jerusalem - Israel was mourning on Thursday the six million Jewish victims of the Nazi genocide with a host of memorial ceremonies throughout the country marking the annual Holocaust remembrance day.
In keeping with yearly tradition, Israelis marked the anniversary by observing a two-minute silence at 10:00 which brought the country to a halt, including motorway traffic.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon left for Poland where he will join a Holocaust memorial ceremony at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp.
About 20 000 people are expected to march at the ceremony, known as the March of the Living, which remembers the victims of the Holocaust during World War II.
About six million Jews perished in the Nazi Holocaust, which is known in Hebrew as the Shoah.
"We have learn the lesson of the Shoah. The Jews will never again be left without a home or a Jewish defence force to protect their lives," Sharon said on Wednesday at a ceremony at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem.
Memorial ceremonies attended by a host of top Israeli officials are to take place throughout the day at the parliament, Yad Vashem and other locations throughout the country.