Two-minutes silence across Israel honors Holocaust victims

Sirens halted Israel for two minutes at 10.00 a.m. on Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day on Tuesday, Due to coronavirus restrictions, all this year’s ceremonies take place without an audience or were pre-recorded. The wreath-laying ceremony at Yad Vashem for the six million victims of the Nazi Holocaust was to be followed at 11 a.m. by a broadcast of Knesset members observing the annual “Every Man Has a Name” event that was filmed in advance.

In towns across the country, boys and girls fanned out outside nursing homes and private residences of many of the 189,500 Holocaust survivors living in Israel with greetings, gifts and flowers. Most are held in quarantine due to the virus. Many small memorial ceremonies were held, while some towns broadcast live remembrance events on stream including local interviews with local survivors.  The day was marked in European countries under the same restrictions due to the global pandemic.