The 2025 Young Professional Delegation to The March of the Living (MOTL)
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Tylor at Birkenau camp (Courtesy)
When Tyler boarded the plane from Philadelphia, he carried with him the weight of a family history marked by loss, silence, and survival. His grandmother was born hiding in the forests of Austria, constantly on the run. His great auntie Perrie bore the tattooed numbers of Auschwitz-Birkenau yet never spoke of what she endured. Most of his father’s mother’s family perished in camps across Europe.
Tyler grew up with Holocaust education in classrooms, museums, and community programs. But none of it prepared him for what it would feel like to step onto the grounds of Auschwitz-Birkenau as an adult. “Being there was… extremely different,” he said. “These camps showed the history, the pain. As much as learning about them is important, going there is another level.”
Roni from San Diego arrived with a very different background but the same sense of responsibility. Her great-grandmother had made Aliyah before the war, driven by Zionist belief, while her seven siblings remained behind in Poland and were murdered. Growing up in the United States, Roni often felt Jewish identity was treated as an afterthought. “Before participating in the March of the Living, my understanding of the Holocaust was very limited,” she explained. “Seeing everything in person was an entirely different experience… it suddenly became real.”
Both Tyler and Roni joined the March of the Living Young Professional’s Delegation, and both insist that doing so as adults transformed their experience profoundly.
Tyler had considered going years earlier but said maturity was essential. His decision to join the young adult delegation was motivated by urgency: his grandmother is 82, and his great aunt has passed. “I needed to go while there were still survivors to tell me their story, while in the location of their greatest battle.”
Roni echoed the sentiment. Her high-school trip was canceled during COVID, but in retrospect she says that delay was a gift. “I’m actually grateful I was able to participate as a young professional,” she reflected. “I think I had a deeper level of maturity and perspective than I would have had as a teenager.” Surrounded by peers she described as “an amazing group of people,” she found herself engaging, processing, and internalizing the experience in a way she knows her younger self never could.
Tyler and Roni speak about specific moments that seared themselves into memory.
For Tyler, it was the day of the March itself. The ceremony for the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the camps was ultimately canceled as cold rain poured over Auschwitz-Birkenau. “As we ran out of Auschwitz-Birkenau cold, hungry, and tired, we felt only the smallest of smallest pains that the prisoners felt,” he remembered. When the group climbed onto the bus wet, exhausted, and laughing together the symbolism hit him sharply. “It showed that we are alive and strong as a Jewish community.”
For Roni, the most unforgettable moment was also marked by rain, but filled with an unexpected sense of unity. “It was pouring rain, and it felt like the sky was crying with us,” she said of the ceremony at Auschwitz-Birkenau. But then came a sound she will never forget: survivor of Hamas captivity Agam Berger playing the violin. “To be there, surrounded by thousands of Jews from all over the world, and to see someone who survived October 7th standing strong in the same place where our ancestors were targeted for simply being Jewish was a moment that made me feel proud, united, and uplifted.”
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Freed hostage Agam Berger (Elinor Lallouche Rotem)
The presence of Holocaust survivors shaped both participants profoundly. Tyler had met survivors many times in his life, but hearing their stories in Poland felt entirely different. “Talking with them in the location of their biggest nightmare, seeing their strength, seeing them dance and laugh and love… it showed me that even in the darkest of nights, Jewish love will always prevail.” Roni felt the same. Listening to a survivor speak, while actually standing, on Polish soil after walking through camps only hours earlier — “hit me completely differently.”
What they carried home was not only memory, but mission.
“It is our duty as Jewish youth to keep the next generation connected to Judaism and to Israel and to remember the Holocaust… It is our job to pass this memory on to ensure 6 million are never forgotten,” said Tylor. The program, he said, did more than teach history. It equipped him with the courage and clarity to confront antisemitism head-on. “October 7th reminded us all that this is not history, but could happen again, within an instant.”
Roni returned with a similar sense of responsibility. “I feel responsible for keeping Holocaust memory alive. Being there and seeing firsthand how far antisemitism can go showed me that we can’t ignore it or stay silent. We must stand strong, speak up, and fight against it.”
“One of the biggest lessons that stayed with me is how strong and resilient the Jewish people are. Visiting the JCC in Krakow and hearing stories of people who are only now discovering that they are Jewish, and choosing to reconnect with their identity, was so touching. It reminded me that no matter the amount of hate, we are still here, rebuilding, remembering, and choosing to be proud Jews,” Roni added.
When asked what they tell others considering joining the March, neither hesitated.
“This is your time to stand up and say, ‘I am Jewish, and I am here,’” Tyler said. “You will come home and be reinvigorated to continue to explore your Jewish identity.”
“Do it,” Roni insisted. “It will be one of the best decisions you ever make… This will allow us to make sure that ‘Never Again’ is not just a saying.”
Both speak of their journey not as a trip, but as a turning point; the moment they stepped into adulthood not only as individuals, but as guardians of memory, witnesses to history, and leaders for the future.
