The official opening ceremony for this year's Yom HaShoah took place at Yad Vashem’s Warsaw Ghetto Square on the Mount of Remembrance in Jerusalem. President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered remarks whilst Shoshana Weis spoke on behalf of survivors, and fellow survivor Efraim Mol recited the El Maleh Rahamim prayer for the souls of the martyrs.

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Israeli soldiers stand on stage during a ceremony marking Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day for the six million Jews killed during World War II, at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem on April 17, 2023 (Photo by MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images)

Israeli soldiers stand dutifully on stage during the ceremony at Yad Vashem, which made “Jewish Resistance during the Holocaust” the theme of this year’s Yom HaShoah, Israel’s annual Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day.

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Holocaust survivors light six torches in memory of the victims during a ceremony marking Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day for the six million Jews killed during World War II, at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem on April 17, 2023 (Photo by MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images)

Holocaust survivors lit six torches in commemoration of the 6 million Jewish victims of the Nazi killing machine. The six survivors who lit the torches were Tova Gutstein, Ben-Zion Raisch, Judith Sohlberg, Robert Bonfil, Efim Gimelshtein and Malka Rendel.

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People stand still in Jerusalem, as a two-minute siren is sounded across Israel to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day on April 18, 2023. Today marks the annual memorial day commemorating the six million Jews killed by the Nazis in the Holocaust during World War Two (Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Israel came to a standstill for two minutes on Tuesday morning, as the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day siren wailed to commemorate the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis.

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Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu lays a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance at the Yad Vashem holocaust museum, on Holocaust Remembrance Day April 18, 2023 (Photo by Erik Marmor/Flash90)

Immediately after the siren, the official state ceremony commenced at the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, where President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, Supreme Court President Esther Hayut and several Holocaust survivors laid wreaths at the monument commemorating the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

“We don’t remember numbers, we remember lives and people,” Herzog said.

“The fact that the name of every Jew is still being said out loud in Jerusalem, eighty years later, in the legislature of our Jewish and democratic state — that is the great victory,” he said.

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An israeli soldier light candles at the hall of remembrance before a ceremony held at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem, as Israel marks annual Holocaust Remembrance Day. April 17, 2023 (Photo by Erik Marmor/Flash90)

An Israeli soldier lights candles at the hall of remembrance. The annual “Unto Every Person There is a Name” ceremony was subsequently held at the Knesset, with participants reading out names of those who perished in the Holocaust.

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Hologram images of Holocaust Survivors are displayed on the Dizengoff Square fountain in Tel Aviv, ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day. April 16, 2023 (Photo by Avshalom Sassoni/FLASH90)

Citizens of the Jewish state marked Yom HaShoah, one of the most solemn days on Israel’s national calendar, on the 27th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan — the day on which the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began.

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Visitors seen at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial museum in Jerusalem on April 16, 2023, ahead of Israeli Holocaust Remembrance Day (Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

According to figures published Sunday by the Holocaust Survivors’ Rights Authority, there are currently 147,199 Holocaust survivors living in Israel.

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Relatives and friends of Holocaust survivors place flowers on names of concentration camps seen on the floor of the Hall of Remembrance at the Yad Vashem holocaust museum, on Holocaust Remembrance Day April 28, 2022 (Photo by Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Hundreds of smaller ceremonies took place throughout the day at municipality buildings, schools and Holocaust memorial monuments across the country.

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Israelis stand still on the beach in Tel Aviv, as a two-minute siren is sounded across Israel to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day on April 28, 2022. Today marks the annual memorial day commemorating the six million Jews killed by the Nazis in the Holocaust during World War Two (Photo by Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

Israel ground to a halt as sirens wailed to commemorate the victims. People stood in homes, on balconies and on the roads as they remembered those murdered. 

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Flash90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the “unique victory of the Jewish people” in the aftermath of the Holocaust, reflected on the forming of families by survivors, their coming to Israel, and never forgetting Jerusalem as a national symbol. He said, though, this victory cannot overshadow the tragedies that the Jewish people — and others — endured during the Holocaust.