"As the Nazis strived to trample civilization and replace it with a `master race` while destroying the Jewish people, so is Iran striving to take over the region and expand further with a declared goal of destroying the Jewish state," Netanyahu said.
Israel continuously views Iran as a threat to its existence, noting Tehran’s support of terror groups such as Hezbollah and Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
"Instead of demanding Iran significantly dismantle its nuclear capabilities and conditioning lifting sanctions on it ending its aggressions, the world powers are retreating, leaving Iran with nuclear capabilities and even allowing it to expand them later on regardless to its actions in the Middle East and around the world," Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu has voiced his disapproval of the world powers’ framework deal with Iran to limit its nuclear program in exchange for a reduction in economic sanctions. Iran and the world powers reached a framework agreement on the deal earlier in April, while a final deal is to be finalized by June 30.
Six million Jews were killed by German Nazis and their collaborators in the Holocaust, wiping out a third of world Jewry. Today, fewer than 200,000 elderly survivors remain in Israel, which was created just three years after the end of World War II.
The annual memorial day is one of the most solemn on Israel`s calendar. Restaurants, cafes and places of entertainment are shut down, and radio and TV programming are dedicated almost exclusively to documentaries about the Holocaust, interviews with survivors and somber music.
On Thursday morning, Israel paused for two minutes of silence as sirens pierced the air. Cars and buses pulled over on the side of highways and roads. Motorists stepped out of their cars and pedestrians stopped in their tracks, bowing their heads as they remembered those who perished.
Wednesday night`s main ceremony at Yad Vashem, at which Netanyahu spoke, included six survivors who lit six symbolic torches, each representing a million of the dead.
One of those was Shela Altaraz, the youngest of four children from Macedonia, whose whole family perished in the Holocaust.
During the war, she briefly found sanctuary in a Muslim village before falling ill with typhus and taken to a hospital. Eventually, she was put in a concentration camp where she was the only child. She would wake up screaming from nightmares but never uttered a word, earning the nickname "The Mute."
“I`m angry at the world for not understanding and denying what happened and I am angry at myself for staying alive when so many others didn`t," she told The Associated Press. "I still live those days as if they were today but I`m proud that I live in a country where they cannot chase us anymore."
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