The “March of the Living” commemorates the Holocaust victims in Auschwitz. This year, survivors of the Hamas attack on Israel were also there. There was a pro-Palestinian protest nearby.
Thousands of Jews from different countries commemorated the victims of the Holocaust in Poland. During the “March of the Living” they and around 50 survivors of the Shoah walked the 3.2 kilometer long route from Auschwitz to Birkenau, the largest of the German extermination camps during the Nazi era.
The starting signal for the march, which also led through the gate with the cynical inscription “Work makes you free,” came from a shofar, a ritual musical instrument.
Rabbi Tamas Vero blows the shofar in Budapest, Hungary. (05/05/2024)
“The good souls of those who died in the Holocaust protected me”
People who survived the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7th also took part in the memorial event. One of them is Daniel Louz from Israel. He told the Reuters news agency that he was convinced that “on October 7th in Beeri, the good souls of those who died in the Holocaust protected him.” Hamas terrorists killed many people on October 7th in Kibbutz Beeri near the Gaza Strip. Louz’s mother was killed in Auschwitz in 1942, says the 90-year-old.
There was also a pro-Palestinian protest on the sidelines of the memorial event. Omar Faris, president of a Palestinian organization in Poland, told the AP news agency: “With this protest we want to show that we bow to the victims of the Holocaust. At the same time, we demand an end to the war, an end to the genocide.”
Pro-Palestinian activists protest against the war in the Middle East. Their demonstration took place near the “March of the Living” commemoration event in Auschwitz.
Remembering the victims from Hungary
This year the “March of the Living” was dedicated to the Jews of Hungary. Their systematic murder by the National Socialists began 80 years ago. According to the Auschwitz Memorial, around 430,000 Jews from Hungary were deported to Auschwitz from the end of April to August 1944. More than 75 percent of them were killed there.
The name Auschwitz is burned into the consciousness of the world as a synonym for the Holocaust and the epitome of evil. The National Socialists killed more than a million people there alone. Most were Jews. Across Europe they murdered around six million Jews during the Shoah.