In a scene possibly not witnessed elsewhere, virtually every vehicle in Israel stopped today, the drivers got out, and just stood. A video shows the spectacle and, as if nothing had just happened, all returned to normal two minutes later.

This is Holocaust Remembrance Day. Just as every year, Israelis pay tribute to the survivors and the dead from the Holocaust, also known as Shoah, by stopping whatever they were doing, including coming to a full stop on highways. Sirens are heard at the exact same time across the tiny country and people everywhere — no matter what they are doing — stop, stand, and reflect.

The Hebrew word HaShoah means “the catastrophe” and, officially, it is the Day of Remembrance  of the Holocaust and Heroism, a specific reference to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943. The day came early this year, as it usually begins at sunset anytime from late April to early May. This year’s began on the evening of Wednesday, April 17. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the largest revolt by Jews during World War II against their continued deportation to be annihilated at the Treblinka extermination camp.

On this day, by law, businesses and other public places are closed as darkness begins to fall. Theaters, playgrounds, coffee shops and stores go quiet and office building lights are extinguished. Broadcast media transmits programming specific to the Holocaust.

This year, at the state ceremony in Jerusalem, six Holocaust survivors lowered the national flag to half-mast and lit a torch at the Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes Authority. Seventy years after the end of World War II, these honored six Shela Altaraz, Avraham Harshalom, Eggi Lewysohn, Ephraim Reichenberg, Dov Shimoni and Sara Weinstein.