Israel will pause Monday night in memory of the six million Jews who perished from 1933 to 1945, as the Jewish state marks the start of Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The annual state ceremony which ushers in the start of the 24- hour commemoration will begin after sunset at 8 p.m. (1700 GMT) at Jerusalem's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, according to local daily The Jerusalem Post.

The solemn hour-and-a-quarter opening event, which will be broadcast live on television channels and radio stations, will be attended by Israeli President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as scores of dignitaries and ambassadors from around the world.

The central theme of this year's ceremony is "Children in the Holocaust," said The Jerusalem Post, adding that some 1.5 million Jewish children were killed by the Nazis.

During the ceremony, which will include a mix of speeches and somber musical interludes, six torches will be lit by survivors in memory of the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust.

All places of entertainment will be closed on Monday night. A two-minute siren will sound on Tuesday at 10 a.m. (0700 GMT) at the start of a series of daylong ceremonies throughout the country.

The official state wreath-laying ceremony will take place just after the siren is sounded at the Warsaw Ghetto uprising memorial at Yad Vashem in the presence of Netanyahu and other officials.

The "Unto Every Person There is a Name" ceremony will follow -- in which Holocaust victims' names are read out -- at both the Hall of Remembrance at Yad Vashem and the Knesset (parliament).

Some 250,000 Holocaust survivors are now living in the country, and about one-third of them live in poverty, prompting a recent landmark government accord to increase their state stipends.