|Israel is to hold one of the largest commemorations of World War II on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz by the Red Army. More than 40 world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron, are attending ceremonies at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, which FRANCE 24 visited.

The millions who disappeared into the darkness of Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps during World War II are commemorated by miniature sculptures at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, located on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

Dr. Robert Rozett, the senior historian in a research institute at the memorial, says "this subject is still central to the world”.

“There are around a million people who visit our museum each year,” he told FRANCE 24. “The majority come from abroad. They do not necessarily have any connection, through their family, to the Holocaust. I think a lot of people have understood that if you want to understand Israel, you have to understand the Holocaust."

Founded in 1953, Yad Vashem is a museum, a memorial and also a research center, with an archive of millions of documents and a library of 170,000 books.

It has gathered information on 4.8 of the six million killed during the Nazi effort to exterminate the Jewish people, and it continues its research.

"We are constantly discovering new materials which provide new answers and new knowledge on these subjects but which also pose new questions," Rozett says.