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The Thirteenth March of the Living in Oświęcim

Several thousand young Jews from all over the world were joined by Poles last Monday in the 13th March of the Living, which pays homage to and expresses remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust. They walked the Death Road from the Auschwitz Concentration Camp site to the Birkenau Concentration Camp site.

Israel Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Minister Josef Lapid headed the march. In remarks during the ceremonies in front of the International Monument to the Victims of the Camp at the Birkenau Concentration Camp site, Lapid emphasized that the extermination of the Jews had not been inevitable. He also stated that there is no guarantee that no one will ever try to repeat it. “Anti-Semitism is still present all over the world,” he said, “and Muslim fanatics are attempting to carry on Hitler’s work.”

Just before starting out on the route of the March, the Israel Deputy Prime Minister paid tribute to the people who had been murdered at the Death Wall next to Block no. 11 in Auschwitz, by laying a wreath from the Israel government there.

In the morning, Jews from Israel, North America, and Europe visited the camp exhibitions, mostly in block no. 11, the so-called Death Block, as well as the exhibition in Block no. 27 on the extermination of the Jews.

The March of the Living set out from the Arbeit macht frei camp gate at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp site at 2:00 PM. The signal to set out was the sound of the ram’s horn, the shofar, being blown. The ancient Hebrews sounded the horn during religious ceremonies. It is a call to God for mercy.

The young Jews and Poles marched to the Birkenau site, where the main ceremony was held. The kaddish prayer for the dead was recited at the end and the Ha-Tikva, the Israel national anthem, was sung.

The participants in the March of the Living left scores of wooden markers symbolizing the matzeva, the Jewish gravestone, on the railroad tracks and unloading platform (ramp) where the Nazis carried out the selection of Jews arriving from all over Europe. The young Jews used these markers as a pledge never to forget the tragedy that befell their ancestors during the Second World War. Many of the markers bore the names of victims. There were also appeals to leaders, politicians, and teachers to defend peace.

This year’s March of the Living came off very peacefully. The organizers had feared a terrorist attack and therefore took special security measures. Plainclothes police and security agents accompanied the column every ten meters. Uniformed police blocked all access roads.

Shortly about the March of the Living

Since 1988, the Israel Education ministry and the March of the Living organization have put on this event, traditionally held on Yom Ha-Shoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. Over 1,500 Jews came for the first March. The event has been held annually since 1996.

The largest March so far, in 1998, attracted over 6,000 Jews. The prime ministers of Israel and Poland, Binyamin Netanyahu and Jerzy Buzek, led the march. In 2000, the presidents of the two countries, Ezer Weizman and Aleksander Kwaśniewski, attended. Last year, Israel President Moshe Katsev walked alongside the Polish president.

The Germans transported some 1,300,000 people, including some 1,100,000 Jews from all over Europe, to Auschwitz from 1940-1945. The deportees also included some 150,000 Poles, 23,000 Roma, 15,000 Soviet POWs, and 25,000 prisoners from other countries. At least 1,100,000 people are estimated to have died in Auschwitz, including some 960,000 Jews, 70,000 to 75,000 Poles, 21,000 Roma, 15,000 Soviet POWs, and 10,000 to15,000 people from other groups.

14,000 people, 60% of them Jews, lived in Oświęcim in 1939, before the Germans built the camp on the edge of town. Only 200 of these Jews survived the war.