JERUSALEM (EJP)---Israeli President Shimon Peres will depart Monday on a three-day state visit to Germany where he will deliver a historic speech to the Bundestag, the German parliament, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Peres will lead a delegation that includes Holocaust survivors born in Germany, members of Israeli youth movements, and leaders of Jewish organizations.

The President will hold a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, hold a memorial ceremony with members of his delegation and participate in state ceremonies in honor of his visit.

The trip marks the completion of a personal circle for the President, whose own grandparents and uncle were burned alive in the Vishneva synagogue.

The German government has arranged a warm welcome for President Peres on his visit. In an official ceremony the German military will offer a gun salute to the President and fly four Phantom fighter jets to accompany his plane on its arrival.

The German Parliament will convene for a special session on January 27, which marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The session will be hosted by the President of the Bundestag Norbert Lammert and attended by German President Horst Koehler, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and members of the German Parliament.

The session will begin with a historic speech by President Peres in Hebrew. In his speech the President will mourn the six million Jewish lives that perished in the Holocaust including those of his grandparents and his uncle.

He is also expected to discuss the underlying nature of anti-Semitism, genocide, and evil, the historical connection between Israel and the Holocaust, and the relationship between Israel and Germany following the war.

The Israeli president will also hold a memorial ceremony at Platform 17 of the Grunewald Railway Station, from which Berlin’s Jewish community was forcibly expelled by the Nazis to hard labor and death.

He will give his remarks at a special ceremony for Berlin’s Jewish community.