Israeli Jews stood in silence as sirens wailed across the country on Thursday marking Holocaust memorial day and 70 years since the liberation of the Nazi death camps. Traffic came to a halt and pedestrians stood at attention for two minutes as the sirens rang out. Commemorations began at sunset on Wednesday and were to continue Thursday with Israeli leaders attending official ceremonies at Jerusalem's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, parliament and elsewhere. A beach-goer stands still as a two-minute siren marking Holocaust Remembrance Day is sounded in Tel Aviv . Israelis pictured standing on the Tel Aviv seashore as they observe the annual Holocaust Memorial . Youths stand still on a beach play area as a two-minute siren marking Holocaust Remembrance Day is sounded in Tel Aviv . Memorable: Israelis take photographs of a main Tel Aviv highway as  all traffic comes to a standstill . Motorists stand still beside vehicles as a two-minute siren marking Holocaust Remembrance Day is sounded in Jerusalem . Israelis stand outside their vehicles on a main Tel Aviv highway as a two-minute siren wails and all traffic comes to a standstill . The annual memorial day commemorates the six million Jews killed by the Nazis during World War Two . The two-minute silence is observed by the entire country, the young and old taking a moment to reflect on the atrocities visited on Jews during the Second World War . President Reuven Rivlin (centre) and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) mark Holocaust Remembrance Day in Jerusalem . Israel's President Reuven Rivlin (centre) pauses after laying a wreath during a ceremony marking the Holocaust Remembrance Day at Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem . Benjamin Netanyahu laying wreaths at the  Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony . Holocaust survivors and their relatives lay a wreath next to the names of concentration camps at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial . The two-minute silence was an emotional experience for Israelis, with the whole country coming to a standstill for the occasion . Until sundown, radio and television stations were to broadcast programmes on the genocide and play sombre music, while places of entertainment were closed. The theme of this year's observances - 'The Anguish of Liberation and the Return to Life: 70 Years Since the End of World War II' - dealt with the pain of survivors and the challenge of rebuilding shattered lives. About 189,000 survivors live in Israel today but according to their welfare organisation close to 25 percent struggle financially, despite government assistance. At opening commemorations for the six million victims on Wednesday evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu compared arch-foe Iran to Hitler's Germany. Israelis and soldiers attend a ceremony marking the annual Holocaust remembrance day in the Martyr's forest near Moshav Kesalon, in central Israel . Soldiers at the Martyr's forest near Moshav Kesalon stand during one of the country's most sombre occasions . Six hundred young people stopped for several minutes to form a Star of David on the City Hall Square in Vilnius during the Holocaust Remembrance Day . People gather around and look at a monument in the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial complex in Jerusalem on the day that the liberation of Jews from the Nazi death camps was marked . Israeli soldiers stand at attention in front of the Yad Mordechay memorial, commemorating a battle between Israel and Egypt during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war as sirens wailed across the country marking the Holocaust memorial day . Solemn: Israelis stop walking and stand in silence in the center of Jerusalem on Thursday . The theme of this year's observances - The Anguish of Liberation and the Return to Life: 70 Years Since the End of World War II - dealt with the pain of survivors and the challenge of rebuilding shattered lives. Pictured are people in Jerusalem observing the silence . Until sundown, radio and television stations were to broadcast programmes on the genocide and play sombre music, while places of entertainment were closed . Rabbi Avraham Firer (chairman and founder of Ezra LeMarpeh, a non-profit organization established in 1979 that provides medical assistance to the needy) lights the main beacon at the Massuah Memorial ceremony for Holocaust Remembrance Day . Moshe Eshkenazi tells Israeli border police officers the story of his grandfather Moshe Pesach, rabbi of the Jewish community in Volos during World War Two who saved more than one thousand Jews, during a ceremony marking the annual Holocaust remembrance day in the Martyr's forest . 'As the Nazis sought to stamp out civilisation and to set the master race to rule across the earth... while wiping out the Jewish people, so does Iran seek to control the region, spread outwards and destroy the Jewish state,' he said. Netanyahu misses no opportunity to slam the emerging nuclear agreement between Tehran and world powers, which is to be finalised by June 30. Israel and the West suspect Iran's civilian nuclear programme is a front for efforts to build a military capability, a charge Tehran denies. Warning against appeasing 'tyrannical regimes,' Netanyahu questioned whether the lessons of World War II had been fully absorbed. 'Has the world really learned from the incomprehensible universal and Jewish tragedy of the previous century?' he asked. 'Democratic governments made a momentous mistake before World War II and we, along with many of our neighbours, are convinced that a bitter mistake has also been made now.' Blacksmith Michael Poitner works on a replica of the Dachau Nazi concentration camp gate with the writing "Arbeit macht frei" (Work Sets you Free) in Biberbach near Dachau . A German blacksmith who . painstakingly rebuilt an iron gate at the Dachau concentration . camp bearing the notorious 'Arbeit macht frei' (work sets you . free) slogan said on Thursday he hoped no one would notice his . work was a replica. Michael Poitner said he was honoured to win the contract to . reconstruct the 1.87 metre-high, 108-kg gate, which was stolen . last year from the memorial site at Dachau, the first Nazi . concentration camp, set up in 1933. 'It was an imposing assignment full of history and it'll be . around a lot longer than I am,' he told Reuters after putting . the final touches to the gate ahead of a May 3 ceremony to mark . the 70th anniversary of the camp's liberation by U.S. troops. 'It's as close as possible to the original with a variance . at most of just a few millimetres here and there.' Chancellor Angela Merkel, who in 2013 became the first . German leader to visit Dachau, will join some 100 survivors at . the ceremony. She visited the Buchenwald death camp with U.S. President Barack Obama in 2009. The Nazis set up the camp in Dachau outside Munich only . weeks after Adolf Hitler took power. Initially designed to . detain political rivals, it became the prototype for a network . of death camps where 6 million Jews were murdered. More than . 41,000 died at Dachau. 'A lot of thought went into how to make this cynical Nazi . slogan close to the original - which is important as some . 800,000 people visit the Dachau memorial each year,' said . Poitner, 36, who was born in town of Dachau. 'You can feel all . that cynicism with this gate.' He studied pictures and documents about the original gate, . which was installed in 1936, and used techniques like . high-temperature brazing, which was more common than soldering . in the 1930s. More than 200,000 people had been detained in the camp by . the time U.S. troops liberated it in 1945. Television footage . showing piles of bodies and starved inmates of the camp were . among the first images the world saw of the Holocaust. The original Dachau gate was stolen in November and police . have not yet recovered it. In December 2009, a similar 'Arbeit macht frei' sign was . stolen from the entry gate of the former Nazi death camp of . Auschwitz in Poland by a Swedish man with far-right ties. Michael Poitner said he was honoured to win the contract toreconstruct the 1.87 metre-high, 108-kg gate . Poitner said his gate is 'as close as possible to the original with a variance at most of just a few millimetres here and there' A March Of The Living participant carries an Israeli flag from the former German Nazi death camp Auschwitz I to Auschwitz II . Participants carrying Israeli flags attend the March Of The Living to Birkenau, in Oswiecim, Poland. About 10,000 people take part in the annual march on the site of the wartime German Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau to  remember the six-million Jews who perished at the hands of the Nazis during World War Two . People stand behind the main entrance of the Nayi concentration camp memorial in Dachau, Germany, Thursday, April 16 as Israel remembers those killed within. The  gate with the writing 'arbeit macht frei' (work sets you free)  was stolen in November 2014 . A participant of  the annual March Of The Living walks past a carnation placed at the fence of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp memorial in Oswiecim, Poland . The March Of The Living sees students from all over the world arriving in Poland to learn more about the Holocaust . Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seized on Israel's annual remembrance of the Holocaust Wednesday to compare arch-foe Iran to Hitler's Germany . Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seized on Israel's annual remembrance of the Holocaust Wednesday to compare arch-foe Iran to Hitler's Germany. 'As the Nazis sought to stamp out civilisation and to set the master race to rule across the earth... while wiping out the Jewish people, so does Iran seek to control the region, spread outwards and destroy the Jewish state,' he said. Speaking at Jerusalem's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, as Israel began marking the liberation of the Nazi death camps 70 years ago, he used the occasion to keep up his constant pressure against the emerging nuclear agreement between Tehran and world powers. World powers agreed with Iran this month on the framework of a deal to rein in its nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions. Israel and many Western governments suspect Iran's civilian nuclear programme is a front for efforts to build a military capability, a charge Tehran denies. Warning against appeasing 'tyrannical regimes,' he questioned whether the lessons of World War II had been fully absorbed. 'Has the world really learned from the incomprehensible universal and Jewish tragedy of the previous century,' he asked. 'The bad agreement being drafted with Iran teaches us that the historic lesson has not been internalised.' 'The powers turn a deaf ear to the crowds in Iran shouting 'Death to America; death to Israel,'' Netanyahu said. 'The democratic governments made a momentous mistake before World War Two and we, along with many of our neighbours, are convinced that a bitter mistake has also been made now.' Last week, Netanyahu demanded that Iran 'stop its threats to annihilate Israel.'
Israeli Jews stood in silence as sirens wailed across the country on Thursday marking Holocaust memorial day . Commemorations began at sunset on Wednesday  to mark 70 years since the liberation of the Nazi death camps . About 189,000 survivors live in Israel today but according to one charity close to 25% struggle financially .