Israel, Poland Mark Holocaust Day

An Israeli Holocaust survivor reacts during a ceremony marking the annual Holocaust remembrance day at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, Monday, April 16, 2007. Sirens sounded across Israel on Monday morning, bringing life to a standstill as millions of Israelis observed a moment of silence to honor the memory of the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust of World War II. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty) (Oded Balilty - AP)

JERUSALEM -- Sirens sounded across Israel Monday morning, bringing life to a standstill as millions of Israelis observed a moment of silence to honor the memory of the victims of the Holocaust.

The two-minute siren at 10 a.m. is an annual tradition marking Israel's Holocaust remembrance day, which began Sunday evening and ends at sundown Monday. Pedestrians froze in their tracks, buses stopped on busy streets, and cars on major highways pulled over as the country paused to pay respect to the 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis.

All day, television stations devoted their broadcasts to historical documentaries and movies, and radio stations played somber music and interviews with survivors. Schools held memorial services, places of entertainment were shut down and the Israeli flag was waved at half staff.

At Yad Vashem, Israel's official Holocaust memorial and museum, the nation's leaders gathered along with Holocaust survivors for the annual wreath-laying ceremony at the Warsaw Ghetto Square. Later, ordinary Israelis flocked to the museum's hall of remembrance to recite names of victims. Other ceremonies, prayers and music performances were planned.

In Poland, thousands of Jews from around the world, many draped in blue-and-white Israeli flags, gathered at Auschwitz.

About 8,000 people walked amid the barracks at the former Nazi death camp for the annual March of the Living, a two-mile walk from the notorious Auschwitz wrought-iron gates, reading "Arbeit Macht Frei," or "Work Sets You Free," to the death camp of Birkenau, where most of the gas chambers were located.

A shofar, or ram's horn, sounded the event's start.

"We are all very proud to walk with our flags," said Zohar Cohen, a 16-year-old visiting from Ashkelon, Israel. "Especially in this place in Poland, where the Germans tried to exterminate all Jews."

The U.S. military said Monday that 34 Jews who died serving as slave laborers for the Nazis were honored with the dedication of gravestones in a ceremony at the U.S. Army airfield in Germany where their mass grave was recently discovered.

More than 200 mourners were on hand for Sunday's ceremony to dedicate the gravestones to the anonymous victims of the Echterdingen concentration camp that were discovered in September 2005 during construction at the airfield.

At Sunday night's opening ceremony at Yad Vashem, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert noted that Israel celebrates its 59th independence day next week.

"The renewal of the Jewish people, its shaking off the ashes of the Holocaust for a new life and national rebirth in its historic birthplace, is the pinnacle of its victory," he said.