News
33rd March of the Living
On 14 April 2026, the 33rd March of the Living took place at the site of the former German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz. Leading the march was a group of around 40 survivors of Auschwitz and the Holocaust. Among them was 98-year-old Nate (Nathan) Leipciger, who took part in the march for the 22nd time.
“Here, in Auschwitz, we stand on the ground where silence, lies, and hatred led to the murder of millions. This is not history to be remembered only—it is a warning,” said Nate Leipciger before the March began. He was born on 28 April 1928 in nearby Chorzów.
At the age of 15, Nate was deported with his family to Auschwitz from the ghetto in Sosnowiec. He was separated from his mother and sister, whom he never saw again. He survived the death march and imprisonment in several camps: Funfteichen, Gross-Rosen, Flossenbürg, Leonberg, as well as Mühldorf am Inn and Waldlager, two subcamps of Dachau. Nate and his father were liberated by American forces on 2 May 1945. In 1948, he emigrated to Canada.
“History does not repeat itself by accident. It repeats when lies are tolerated, when hatred is excused, and when good people choose to remain silent. We know where that leads. I have seen where that leads. So, we must stand—clearly, firmly, and without fear. We must stand for truth. We must stand against hatred. We must stand for each other. Because if we do not, then we have learned nothing. And if we do—together—we will ensure that this place remains a warning, not a prophecy,” he said.
The March of the Living takes place on Holocaust Remembrance Day, Yom HaShoah, which is connected to the anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
“As the world faces a frightening surge in antisemitism, Holocaust distortion and denial, and a threatening global assault on the safety and security of our community, we are more committed than ever to do all we can to face and to fight these threats by teaching the lessons of the Holocaust. Understanding the result of hatred, prejudice and bigotry as well as individual and communal intolerance for another is a must as we strive to help safeguard a better tomorrow,” wrote the organizers of the March.
The organizers also recalled the words of Elie Wiesel, a survivor of Auschwitz and recipient of the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize, whose 10th anniversary of death is commemorated this year:
“Memory saved the Baal Shem Tov, and if anything can, it is memory that will save humanity. For me, hope without memory is like memory without hope. Just as man cannot live without dreams, he cannot live without hope. If dreams reflect the past, hope summons the future. For the dead and the living, we must bear witness. Not only are we responsible for the memories of the dead, we are also responsible to what we d with those memories.”
Among the approximately 6,000 participants—primarily young Jews from dozens of countries, as well as a group of several hundred students from Poland—were also Israel’s Minister of Education Yoav Kisch, representatives of the diplomatic corps and the World Jewish Congress, as well as former hostages held by Hamas and individuals who survived antisemitic attacks in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
After passing through the “Arbeit macht frei” gate, participants of the March walked from the grounds of the former Auschwitz I camp to Auschwitz II-Birkenau.
The main ceremony of the March of the Living took place at the memorial commemorating the victims of the camp, located near the ruins of gas chambers and crematoria II and III. Seven torches were lit on stage: six in memory of the six million Jews murdered during the Shoah, and one symbolizing the rebirth of the Jewish people. Those gathered at the site of the former camp also recited, among others, the Kaddish—the Jewish prayer for the dead.
Participants of the March placed numerous wooden plaques bearing the names of victims across the site, symbolizing Jewish tombstones—matzevot. Some of them were placed on the railway tracks at the ramp, where German SS doctors carried out selections of Jews deported to Auschwitz for extermination from many countries of occupied Europe.
