After a two-year hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2022 March of the Living took was held on Thursday in the former Nazi German Auschwitz concentration camp. Polish President Andrzej Duda was among the participants.
The March began at the infamous "Arbeit macht frei" gate to the former Auschwitz concentration camp and ended at Auschwitz II-Birkenau. Jews from many countries took part in the event.
The sound of the shofar horn signalled the beginning of the March, which is a form of paying tribute to the victims of the Holocaust.
This year the March operated with reduced capacity in the shadow of war in Ukraine, with only eight Holocaust survivors present at the ceremony.
According to the International March of the Living organisation, approximately 2,000 young people took part in the March, including some 350 Poles.
Poland's President Andrzej Duda was among the participants and gave a speech during ceremony.
"Let's shout out loud: no to hatred, no to anti-Semitism, no to anti-Ukrainianism, no to anti-Polonism" - he said.
The organisation also said that the theme of the March was focused "on the importance of passing the responsibility for Holocaust remembrance and education to the next generation – the grandchildren of those who endured the dark days of Nazi oppression and systematic annihilation of more than 6 million Jewish victims and those committed to remembering the past as a teaching tool for the future".
The International March of the Living is an annual educational program, bringing individuals from around the world to Poland and Israel to study the history of the Holocaust and to examine the roots of prejudice, intolerance and hatred. Since its inception in 1988, more than 260,000 alumni from 52 countries have marched down the same 3-kilometer path leading from Auschwitz to Birkenau on Holocaust Remembrance Day - Yom Hashoah - as a tribute to all victims of the Holocaust.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, PAP, TVN24