A trip to Poland makes the horrors of the Holocaust hit home, University of Notre Dame professor Emilia Justyna Powell said Friday.

The annual commemoration is being held in conjunction with Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. Under a 1951 resolution approved by the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, Yom HaShoah is observed on the 27th day of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar, which began at sundown Wednesday and ended at sundown Thursday.

Israel began its Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day events Wednesday night as similar events continue through Friday in the United States.