Blind Israelis March from Auschwitz and Birkenau with Their Guide Dogs

Jerusalem Post A 28-minute documentary film, “Blind Love,” recounts a trip in 2013 to Poland of a delegation of six blind Israelis who lead the viewer on a different kind…

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Sigmund Rolat’s Speech in Poland, 2015

Dear March of the Living Students, We have all gathered here to remember. From all sides, we are called upon not to forget. But why should we remember at all? If…

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Playing Music for the March of the Living, Violinist Yevgeny Kutik Writes About March of the Living

Last week, at the invitation of International March of the Living (MOTL), I traveled to Poland to perform at the Holocaust memorial ceremony, held in Auschwitz- Birkenau. In addition to playing at the Auschwitz ceremony, I performed at a concert honoring the liberators who were the first to enter concentration camps and discover Nazi atrocities. I also visited sites around Poland, including the mass graves near Tykocin and the Treblinka concentration camp. As I flew back to the USA, I found that I was at a loss for words. Without a doubt, this was one of the most profoundly moving weeks of my life, yet at the same time I didn’t quite know what to say. Tykocin is a small village in northeastern Poland. Around the time of WWII it was inhabited by 1800 Jewish residents. Over the course of two days, as the Nazis came in, nearly all the residents of this village were taken to the nearby forest and executed in waves. Three pits were dug and the residents were forced to stand in them as they were shot one group at a time, each standing upon the bodies of the previously shot group. The Treblinka concentration camp was responsible for the death of over 800,000 Jews. This camp was designed to execute thousands within hours of arrival. Mass graves and several cremation pits, one of which survives today, were used to dispose of the dead bodies. Upon visiting each of these sites and hearing details of the indescribable subhuman perversity shown by the Nazis, I would find myself go through the same pattern of thought and emotion: shock, a passionate anger and frankly, hate, sadness, and grief. And then suddenly, on the day of the Yom Hashoah ceremony at Auschwitz, I began to experience hope. In preparation for the ceremony I arrived early and walked the length of the overwhelmingly enormous field at the Birkenau death camp to get to a makeshift stage at the other end. An eerie silence filled the space as I quietly walked by myself. After a week of seeing the remnants of Holocaust atrocities first-hand, I was beset by sadness and confusion. After warming up, I stood off in the wings getting ready to open the Yom Hashoah ceremony with music. As I waited, I suddenly saw the first of over 10,000 people start marching onto the field of Birkenau; many of them young, together with Holocaust survivors, veterans, VIP’s, Jews, and non-Jews all walking arm in arm down the same path countless numbers walked to their deaths. This was hope in physical form – the future, understanding, love, and a commitment to good. Inspired, I went out on stage. As at Auschwitz, both at Tykocin and Treblinka, I pulled out my violin and played. At Tykocin I stood by one of the mass graves and played Ravel’s Kaddish (Click here –http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCXYPEsDFsQ – to watch performance of Ravel’s Kaddish during the March of the Living.) At Treblinka, I stood by the remaining cremation pit and played Kol Nidre at the site were so many were turned to ash. The sound of music cutting through the quiet, hallowed silence said more than I could ever express with words. (To watch performance of Ravel’s Kaddish at the March of the Living, click here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd0hCjEs1GI What is there to say? These horrific events happened, and they will forever be burned into our history. All we can do now is always remember what happened and work together to make sure such evil and hate never shows its face again. Never again.

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March of the Living to Focus on Post-Survivor Period

JTA By Sam Sokol 2015 marks the twenty seventh March of the Living, in which students from more than forty five countries around the globe make a pilgrimage to…

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March of the Living 2015

J-Wire 70 years after the end of the Second World War 11,000 participants, both Jews and non-Jews, joined the 27th March of the Living from Auschwitz to Birkenau. Coming from over 45 countries, they took part in the annual march from the gates of Auschwitz to a commemoration ceremony at Birkenau following a week’s preparation in Poland during which they learned the universal lessons of the Holocaust including the importance of fighting hatred, intolerance, racism and fascism. To date over 220,000 young people have taken part in the March of the Living since 1988. This year saw delegations from, among others, the United States, Canada, UK, Mexico, Panama, Greece, Australia, Morocco, France, Austria, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa with each delegation accompanied by a Holocaust survivor who tell their personal story. The March of he Living was attended this year by the Minister of Education and Women’s Affairs of Austria, Gabriele Heinisch-Hosek, and the Ambassador of the United States to the United Nations in Geneva, Ambassador Keith Harper, who lit two of the six torches at the end of the ceremony. The march was opened by the sound of the Shofar and Dr. Shmuel Rosenman, Chairman of the March of the Living, who said, “Let us march against intolerance, against hate and for a better future for all humanity.” His Holiness Pope Francis sent a special message to the March of the Living: “I ask you to convey to the organizers of the March of Living my closeness to them and their mission. All the efforts for fighting in favor of life are praiseworthy and have to be supported without any kind of discrimination. For this reason I am very close to these initiatives, that are not only against death but also against the thousands of discriminatory phobias that enslave and kill. I thank them for all their doings, and pray to the Lord a blessing for them in this struggle for life, equality and dignity. The President of the State of Israel, President Rivlin, also sent this message: “Even though 70 years have passed we did not forget and we will never forget that horrible chapter in the history of mankind. The March of the Living is proof of the everlasting connection between the past and the future. Today, as you all come together and march from Auschwitz to Birkenau, Jews and non-Jews alike you show the world what this connection really means. Young adults walking side by side with the last of the survivors who were here exactly 70 years ago. Bring life into the stories, the stories of those who were murdered for being Jewish, for being different. I turn to you young adults and urge you to cherish this moment. The survivors are now passing to you the torch of life, of belief, of standing strong. Hold this torch high to ensure that even if there are no more survivors living among us their memory will always be part of our life and will never fade away…We build our future with eyes wide open and alert to the threats. Nevertheless the horrors of the past and the threats of the present will not dictate our lives nor shape the lives of our children. We forever work for a better future.” This year, as every year, the March of the Living was led by Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, the Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv-Yafo who is himself a child survivor. Rabbi Lau spoke at the main ceremony and said, “We cannot forget and we cannot forgive. We cannot forget because there are expressions of anti-Semitism and hatred which remind us daily, there are expressions of destruction of a state. We cannot forgive because we have no authority to forgive, the victims didn’t give us that mandate. In the death camps there was no discrimination by origin, tribe or opinion when they killed us all because we were Jewish. If we could all die together we must know the secret to live together in peace, unity and brotherhood. We owe our survival to their memory.” Holocaust survivor Sigmund Rolat addressed the students saying: “We have all gathered here to remember. From all sides, we are called upon not to forget. But why should we remember at all? If I had a choice I would prefer NOT to remember. Not to remember the Czestochowa Ghetto where my family and I, then a child, were imprisoned. Not to remember the killings of my father and mother, of my brother and family members, of my Polish nanny Elka who chose to remain in the ghetto because she loved a Jewish child – me. Not to remember the daily humiliation, the routine of murder, the hunger, the cold, and the numbing knowledge that we are powerless and alone. I would prefer not to have these memories – but I do not have the choice. Why then choose memory if you are not forced to? I can think of four reasons. The first is simple solidarity. If you choose my memories, this means that we together are no longer with them alone. Each time we reach out to the legacy of horror, we make a crack in the ghetto wall, a breach in the barbed wire. Not that we can tear them down – it is 70 years too late for that. Walls built with blood and death survive their physical downfall. They need to be pulled down day by day by remembering. The second is simple decency. The Germans had managed not only to murder the six million: they murdered also the memories of them ever having existed. True, the great majority of those then killed would have passed away by now – even had there been no Shoah. But they would have lived on in the memories of their children and friends, in the record of the achievements and even failures of their lives. The Shoah eliminated all that as well. Your remembrance is their only chance. The third reason is simple fear. It is an illusion to believe that Auschwitz can be forgotten simply because the right side won the war. Auschwitz remains with us forever always waiting to be realized again. Do not believe the magic incantation of “Never again”: it HAS happened again. Think of Bosnia, Sudan, Rwanda. In different ways, to different peoples – but it has. The Shoah remains unique in the sense it was unprecedented. But all genocides are tragic in their own ways, and remembering them is the first step to preventing their recurrence. Remembering is, after all, the least we can do. And so we stand here in solidarity, mourning and fear. Our unity is rooted not only in our Jewish peoplehood which we share with those whom we remember today. Their Jewishness was not incidental to their fate: it determined it. But our unity today encompasses all, Jews and non-Jews, who remember, grieve and mourn – and participate in our solidarity. In a world in which once again there are places where it is not safe to be Jewish, today’s meeting assumes an added dimension. For Poland on whose occupied soil the Germans had placed the abomination of Auschwitz is today a place where it is safe to be a Jew. Poland now embraces its small but thriving Jewish community. Our history is cherished in the Polin Museum which has recently opened in Warsaw. And next to the Museum we shall build a monument to those Poles who – like my Elka – risked their lives to save Jews from the chimneys of Auschwitz. From the ghetto walls of Czestochowa. From the Abyss. And our gratitude towards them is the fourth reason to remember. God bless you and your memories.”  

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Parent of MOTL Alumni Talks About Being the Mom of an IDF Soldier

(Names have been deleted at the request of the family) Following are the remarks delivered at a community rally in support of Israel. I’m the mother of a Lone Soldier. The…

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March of the Living Budapest

March of the Living Budapest 30,000+ marching to train station where 600 participants will board train (of the…

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March of the Living teens experience Shabbat in Poland

This past weekend has been one of the most inspirational weekends I have ever experienced. On Friday…

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‘Train of the Living’ to Memorialize 70th Anniversary of Deportation of Hungarian Jews

The Jerusalem Post By Daniel K. Eisenbud  Hundreds of high school students to ride train from Budapest to Auschwitz to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day. Hundreds of high school students from across the globe march from Auschwitz to Birkenau last year in an annual event sponsored by International March of the Living. Photo: COURTESY OF BATIA DORI To mark the 70th anniversary of the mass deportation and murder of over 585,000 Hungarian Jews during World War II, hundreds of highschool students from across the globe will travel by train from Budapest to Auschwitz, where they will join 10,000 other students to march to the Birkenau extermination camp. The four-day event, organized by International March of the Living to observe Holocaust Remembrance Day, will begin on Friday in Hungary, which is ranked among the most anti-Semitic nations in Europe. Indeed, the country’s third most popular political party is the radical-nationalist Jobbik Party, which unapologetically espouses and condones openly anti-Semitic rhetoric. In a show of unity to Jewish victims of the war, as well as present anti-Semitism afflicting his nation, Hungary’s President Janos Ader is scheduled to honor the memory of the Hungarian Jews killed in the Holocaust and proclaim his opposition to ongoing anti-Semitism. International March of the Living’s chairman Shmuel Rosenman said he was heartened by Ader’s participation in the program, adding that the president’s responsibility will be to point out the profoundly indelible damage that the deportations and subsequent slaughter inflicted. “The painful memories of such a tragic massacre should be harsh enough to have been ingrained within people worldwide that such unchecked hatred cannot go unnoticed, or be dismissed as just ‘the grumblings of a few,’” said Rosenman. In a symbolic gesture to commemorate the once thriving Hungarian Jewish community, hundreds of young Jews from Budapest and around the world will gather in the capital on Saturday evening to travel by train to Auschwitz- Birkenau, where the vast majority of the nearly 600,000 victims never returned from. President Shimon Peres has prepared a special message for the ceremony in Budapest, calling for tolerance and a global campaign against any kind of racism and neo-Nazism, Rosenman said. Yoram Dori, media adviser for the event, said the train ride from Budapest to Auschwitz will be called “The Train of the Living” and “serve as a powerful testament to the great victory of the Jewish people [over] the Nazi animal.” On Holocaust Remembrance Day, passengers of “The Train of the Living” will join survivors and thousands of other participants for the organization’s annual 3 km. march from Auschwitz to Birkenau, the largest and most notorious of the death camps. A ceremony memorializing Hungarian Jewry and the six million Jews murdered, including 1.5 million children, will follow. Rosenman said the march will honor the memory of Jews dehumanized and killed during Nazi Germany’s infamous death marches. “This march, joined by thousands of teens, adults and survivors from around the world of diverse backgrounds, serves as a hopeful counterpoint to the experience of hundreds of thousands of Jews forced by the Nazis to cross vast expanses of European terrain under the harshest of conditions,” he said. The International March of the Living is an annual educational program which brings students from all over the world to Poland to study the history of the Holocaust and the roots of prejudice, intolerance and hate. Since its inception in 1988, the organization has sponsored over 200,000 youths from around the world who have marched down the same path leading from Auschwitz to Birkenau on Holocaust Remembrance Day. “International March of the Living imparts the lessons of the Holocaust, celebrates the history of Jewish survival and instills a passion for social justice,” said Rosenman. “Youth from diverse religious and cultural backgrounds have participated in this life-transforming experience.” Moreover, Rosenman said the experience of personally witnessing the horrors of world Jewry slaughtered during the Holocaust serves as an incomparably powerful educational tool. “Instead of learning just from books, the literal facts on the ground become their laboratory.” Following commemorative ceremonies in Hungary and Poland, the students will fly to Israel, where they will honor Israel’s fallen soldiers during Remembrance Day and celebrate Independence Day.

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UN Exhibit to Honor March of the Living

"When you listen to a witness, you become a witness" On Tuesday, January 28th 2014, in the Visitor Centre, Dag Hammarskjold Library Lower Level, the United Nations will begin hosting the International March of the LivingExhibit: When You Listen to a Witness, You Become a Witness. The opening event and reception will take place that evening in the Library gallery from 6PM – 8PM, with Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, The Honorable Ron Prosser, as the keynote speaker. The exhibit opening follows International Holocaust Remembrance Day, an annual day of commemoration established by the United Nations. When You Listen to a Witness, You Become a Witness will run through the end of February 2014. The exhibit is open to UN pass holders and for those who have pre-registered online for a UN Guided Tour from 10AM-5PM, Monday thru Friday. Additional private tours together with guest speakers can be arranged through the March of the Living offices. When You Listen to a Witness, You Become a Witness features powerfully moving images and reflections in verse gleaned from 25 years of March of the Living, in color and black-and-white representations, documenting the stories of aging survivors and young students as they walk hand in hand participating in a life transforming journey. The March of the Living is an annual program which brings high school students from around the world for a week of intensive education and touring in Poland and Israel, to study the history of the Holocaust and examine the roots of prejudice, intolerance and hate. Its aim is to impart the lessons of the Holocaust, celebrate the history of Jewish survival and instill a passion for social justice. The students visit once thriving sites of Jewish life and sites of mass murder and genocide in Poland. On Holocaust Remembrance Day – on April 28, 2014 – they will march from Auschwitz to Birkenau in memory of Nazi victims with survivors sharing their stories standing in the very places their tragic stories unfolded. The UN exhibit ends with a “Guest Book.” Visitors are encouraged to write their own messages of hope and tolerance. These statements will be “taken” on the 2014 March of the Living, and placed on the grounds of Aushwitz to Birkenau along with the thousands of other plaques participants place there themselves.

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