Holocaust survivors from around the world joined thousands of people in the March of the Living on Tuesday at the site of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, an annual event held in memory of the 6 million Jews killed by Nazi Germany during World War II. The march took place on Holocaust Remembrance Day in the Jewish calendar, beginning at Auschwitz and ending 3 kilometers away at Birkenau, where Jews from across Europe were transported by train and murdered in gas chambers. Among the guests were survivors of recent antisemitic attacks, including the mass shooting in December in which 15 people were killed during a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach. The annual march is now in its 38th year and usually draws thousands of participants, including Holocaust survivors and Jewish students, leaders and politicians.
Fifty survivors took part in the march, with some traveling from Israel, but logistical difficulties for those traveling from Israel were caused by airspace restrictions associated with the Iran war. This year's commemoration comes amid a fragile two-week ceasefire with Iran after a war that began on 28 February, when a joint US-Israeli air attack killed Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
My father didn’t make it because he was a Jew.
Israel came to a standstill on Tuesday as sirens sounded across the country in tribute to the 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust. At 10:00 am local time (0800 CET), Israel observed a two-minute silence, with traffic coming to a halt and the rhythm of everyday life suspended in a symbolic act of remembrance. The commemoration is held each year in April or May in accordance with the Hebrew calendar and is separate from International Holocaust Remembrance Day which is marked on 27 January. Revital Yakin Krakovsky, deputy chief executive of the International March of the Living organisation, said that since 7 October, antisemitism has surged and is spreading everywhere, adding that the scale and normalisation of this hatred echoes the dark times seen before and, today of all days, we know how it ended.
According to Euronews, Hannah Abesidon, daughter of Holocaust survivor Tibor Weitzen, described that her father didn’t make it because he was a Jew. She also noted that it starts with the Jews but it doesn’t end with the Jews, highlighting the broader significance of the annual commemoration.
It starts with the Jews but it doesn’t end with the Jews.