Israelis have observed two minutes of silence in remembrance of the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust and 70 years since the liberation of the Nazi death camps.

Sirens marked the start of a state wreath-laying service at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Centre in Jerusalem during Israel’s annual Holocaust Memorial Day, which began after sunset on Wednesday and lasts until sunset on Thursday.

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Ceremonies were also held at schools, colleges and universities throughout the country.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at an opening ceremony at Yad Vashem, said the world had not learned from World War II.

“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.”

Mr Netanyahu also compared Iran’s “aggression” in the Middle East 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.

Mr 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 program is a front for efforts to build a military capability, a charge Tehran denies.