Siren wails as Israel marks annual Holocaust Remembrance Day
Israel came to a standstill on Monday as people stopped in their tracks for a two-minute siren that wailed across the country in remembrance of the Holocaust's six million Jewish victims.
The ritual is the centrepiece of Israel's annual Holocaust Remembrance Day for those killed by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during the Second World War.
Motorists pulled over, stepping outside their vehicles, heads bowed in silence.
It is one of the most melancholy days in Israel's calendar.
Solemn ceremonies are held in schools and community centres. Cafes and places of entertainment shut down while TV and radio stations broadcast documentaries about the Holocaust and its victims.
The Holocaust wiped out a third of world Jewry. Israel was established in 1948 and hundreds of thousands of survivors fled there.
