Yom HaShoah - Holocaust Remembrance

The gates of Auschwitz, with the inscription "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work sets you free)

From the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs:

Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah in Hebrew) is a national day of commemoration in Israel, on which the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust are memorialized. It is a solemn day, beginning at sunset on the 27th of the month of Nisan (May 1, 2011) and ending the following evening, according to the traditional Jewish custom of marking a day. Places of entertainment are closed and memorial ceremonies are held throughout the country.

The central ceremonies, in the evening and the following morning, are held at Yad Vashem and are broadcast on the television. Marking the start of the day - in the presence of the President of the State of Israel and the Prime Minister, dignitaries, survivors, children of survivors and their families, gather together with the general public to take part in the memorial ceremony at Yad Vashem in which six torches, representing the six million murdered Jews, are lit.

The following morning, the ceremony at Yad Vashem begins with the sounding of a siren for two minutes throughout the entire country. For the duration of the sounding, work is halted, people walking in the streets stop, cars pull off to the side of the road and everybody stands at silent attention in reverence to the victims of the Holocaust. Afterward, the focus of the ceremony at Yad Vashem is the laying of wreaths at the foot of the six torches, by dignitaries and the representatives of survivor groups and institutions. Other sites of remembrance in Israel, such as the Ghetto Fighters' Kibbutz and Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, also host memorial ceremonies, as do schools, military bases, municipalities and places of work.

Activities marking this day of remembrance will take place all over the world.

In Poland, people will participate in the annual "March of the Living."

From the European Jewish Post:

Some 7, 000 people are to take part in this year’s March of the Living from the brick barracks of the former Nazi German concentration camp of Auschwitz to the crematoria of Birkenau.

On 2 May young Jews from around the world will be joined by about 2, 000 Poles.

The Rabbi of Israel Meir Lau and a group of Israeli parliamentarians are expected to participate. In line with a long-standing tradition, they will be led by Holocaust survivors and the march will start with the wail of the Jewish ram’s horn, the shofar, which symbolises freedom.

The annual March of the Living was launched in 1988 and is primarily an educational project coinciding with the Holocaust Memorial Day (Yom-ha Shoah).

In 2005, the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, the event attracted 20, 000 people and official delegations from almost fifty countries.

More about Yom HaShoah.