Thousands gather in Poland for the annual March of the Living on Holocaust Remembrance Day
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Holocaust survivors from around the world joined thousands of people Tuesday in the March of the Living, an annual event held at the site of the Auschwitz concentration camp in memory of the 6 million Jews killed by Nazi Germany during World War II.
Among the 50 participating survivors, some were from Israel, organizers said, despite logistical difficulties caused by airspace restrictions linked to the war in Iran.
Revital Yakin Krakovsky, deputy general director of the International March of the Living organization, warned that anti-Semitism is alive today despite the lessons of the Holocaust.
“Since October 7, anti-Semitism has increased and is spreading everywhere,” she said. “The scale and normalization of this hatred echoes the dark times we have seen before and, now more than ever, we know how it ended. »
The march in Poland took place on Holocaust Remembrance Day in the Jewish calendar. It began at Auschwitz and ended 3 kilometers (2 miles) away at Birkenau, where Jews from across Europe were transported by train and murdered in gas chambers.
Guests included survivors of recent anti-Semitic attacks, including the December mass shooting in which 15 people were killed during a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia.
Hannah Abesidon, the daughter of 78-year-old Holocaust survivor Tibor Weitzen, one of 15 people killed in the Bondi Beach massacre, has spoken about her experience of the attack in which her father was killed.
“My father didn’t survive because he was Jewish,” Abesidon said. “It starts with the Jews but it doesn’t stop with the Jews.”
The annual march, now in its 38th year, usually attracts thousands of participants, including Holocaust survivors and Jewish students, leaders and politicians.
