THE annual ‘March of the Living’ march took place on Thursday (April 16) with thousands of Jewish adults and teens from around the world walking the three-kilometer stretch from the Auschwitz concentration camp to Birkenau.
Among them were also Holocaust survivors and former captives of Nazi concentration camps.
The March is also dedicated to students from all over the world to study the history of the Holocaust and to examine the roots of prejudice, intolerance and hate.
The vocally silent tribute is a commemoration for those who died in the holocaust during World War Two, rams’ horns are sounded and marchers sing as tribute.
Teddy Bolgar is a Hungarian holocaust survivor from inter alia Auschwitz and Dachau Nazi concentrations camps.
For the last 14 years he has travelled from Canada where he now lives to attend the march.
“I thought maybe the world learned something. I was disappointed. They didn’t. Genocide, wars continued, so I became very pessimistic. And when I talk to younger groups I tell them maybe when it will be your turn to run this world, you will know how to learn in peace,” said Bolgar.
As many as 1.5 million people, mostly Jews, perished in the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, either in the gas chambers or from freezing temperatures, starvation, sickness, medical tests and forced labour.
The first ‘March of the Living’ was held in 1988 and this year marked 70 years since the end of World War II.
Young students from countries including the USA, Israel, Canada and Brazil used the opportunity whilst on their trip in Poland to establish dialogue with native survivors and try to comprehend what happened at these camps.
Among them was Yoel Aryeh, a student from New York who is experiencing his first visit to a concentration camp.
For him this was a personal lesson of the history.
“I am Jewish so I want to see the history of what it was like, what my ancestors went through not even 70 years ago, people are still alive that can still account for this and I think that it’s important for myself and every Jew to come and see what happened to our people,” Aryeh said. (Reuters)