Yom HaZikaron laShoah Ve'laGvura or Yom HaShoah (יום השואה , יום הזיכרון לשואה ולגבורה) - "Holocaust Martyrs' Remembrance Day" - is held in the early spring, on the 27th day of Nisan according to the Hebrew calendar. Yom HaShoah is a day set aside for remembering the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. In Israel, it is a national memorial day.

Yom HaShoah was inaugurated in 1959, anchored in a law signed by the Prime Minister of Israel David Ben-Gurion and the President of Israel Yitzhak Ben-Zvi. The date was set to commemorate the anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising (April 19, 1943).
In 2007 YomHaShoah is on April 15th.

On the eve of Yom HaShoah in Israel, there is a state ceremony at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes Authority. At 10:00am on Yom HaShoah, throughout Israel, air-raid sirens are sounded for two minutes. Buses and cars stop, even on the highways, and the whole country comes to a standstill as people pay silent tribute to the dead. On the eve of Yom HaShoah and the day itself, places of public entertainment are closed by law. Israeli television airs Holocaust documentaries and Holocaust-related talk shows, and low-key Hebrew and Yiddish songs are played on the radio. Flags on public buildings are flown at half mast.

Also during this day, tens of thousands of Israeli high-school students, and thousands of Jews from around the world, hold a memorial service in Auschwitz, in what has become known as "The March of the Living," in defiance of the Holocaust Death Marches.

Let this day become an occasion for a debate, lecture or meeting with a witness of history. Let it be the day of reflexion on our former neighbors and their culture.

It is with pleasure that we invite you to the celebration organized by the students of the Middle School No. 2 in Wlodawa. We hope that their initiative will be an inspiration for you!

More at: http://www.pg2wlodawa.neostrada.pl/dpoh.html