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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Young and Old Walk Hand in Hand: For 25 Years the March of the Living Has Striven to Bond High School Students with Holocaust Survivors

National Post  Abigale Subhan  A Holocaust survivor takes part in the March of the Living holding a photos of himself as a concentration camp prisoner. A UN-hosted exhibit marking the March of the Living’s efforts will show hundreds of poems, quotes, photos and videos from the experience of students and survivors. Photo: Y. Zeliger When Holocaust survivor Anita Ekstein first visited the death camp that held her mother, she couldn’t stop shaking. She walked into the Belzec extermination camp in Poland to visit a newly opened memorial – and found her mother’s name, Ettel, etched into the wall. It was 2005, on Mother’s Day, more than 60 years after she had last seen her mother. “It’s like my cemetery. We don’t have graves to visit, so now once a year when I go there, it’s like going to the cemetery there for me, my family,” the 79 year old says of her experience at the death camp where almost 435,000 Jews went to die. Now Mrs. Ekstein’s story will be told at a UN-hosted exhibit in New York celebrating 25 years for an organization that bridges the gap between high school students and Holocaust survivors. Since 1998, the March of the Living has organized a week long trip to Poland for a group of high schools students. The students take the trip with Holocaust survivors, learning about the genocide and examine “the roots of prejudice, intolerance and hate” They also participate in a three-kilometer march from Auschwitz to Birkenau the largest Nazi concentration camp during the Second World War. More than 200,000 students, from various backgrounds, have taken part in the program since its inception. Jerry Kozminski, right, shows his concentration camp tattoo to students visiting Auschwitz. He and his family risked their lives to rescue and hide 22 Jews from the Nazis. Photo: Igal Hecht Eli Rubenstein, National Director for the March of the Living Canada, says the event is especially poignant for survivors. “Now they are not marching towards an almost certain death, but toward freedom, with pride and dignity”, he says. This year will be Mrs. Ekstein’s fourteenth time on the trip. She has attended with most of her family, which consists of three children, eight grandchildren, and one great grandchild. When Mrs. Ekstein was seven years old, the Nazis forced her family into a ghetto and her father asked a kind Polish man to save his only daughter. The stranger took her in, gave her a new name and taught her about Christianity, until a neighbor revealed her identity. When spent seven weeks hiding in a cupboard, the same stranger rescued her again. At the end of the war, she discovered her mother and father had died. She left Poland in 1946 with her aunt – who had been rescued by Oskar Schindler – and started a new life in Canada, 2 years later. “We are four generations, just because one man had the courage to save a little girl”, she says. “I am marching for every one” Photo: Y. Zeliger The UN exhibit will celebrate hundreds of poems, quotes, photos and videos, from the experience of students, and survivors during the trip. Rose Shentow, wife of a former Auschwitz prisoner, has been on the trip four times and the March has touched her family in many ways. But as a former teacher, she says she is most interested in the impact the trip has on students. On her first trip, Ms. Shentow noticed a teenaged girl who was transfixed with one particular item at the Auschwitz museum collection. It was a pair of red-haired braids that had cut off a little girl’s head – the braids mired the same red hair of the student. “I never forgot the scene. I still get shivers up and down my spine when I think of that young lady looking at that pair of braids” she said. As for Mrs., Ekstein, she will host two pieces at the exhibit. Her final piece is a quote to her daughter and granddaughter as looks back at a sea of people marching from Auschwitz to Birkenau. “You see? Hitler did not win.”In 2012, Lauren Colt, a 19-year-old student from Toronto went on the March and kept a diary of her experience. She also had recurring nightmares of bring taken away from her family for a couple of months after the trip. “I kept putting myself in [the victims’] shoes,” she said, “It is really emotional”.    

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The March of the Living Expands Its Message to Address a New Generation

Greater Miami Jewish Federation More than a quarter century after the founding of the March of the Living, an innovative Holocaust education program for high school students, its organizers are re-examining the iconic journey to Poland and Israel and adapting new ways to make it relevant for a new generation of young Jews. “Kids are now more savvy and connected than the teens of 15 or 20 years ago,” said Morrie Siegel, Chair of Miami’s March of the Living program. “They’ve grown up with various messages about the Holocaust, and that exposure challenges us to engage them. We are the stewards of this phenomenal community Holocaust education effort, and our job is to set the table for these kids so they can take the experiences of the March and make them their own.” Created in 1987 by educators and Holocaust survivors in Miami, the program today is known locally as the Leo Martin March of the Living (LMMOL), in memory of the Holocaust survivor and major benefactor who founded the Friends of the March of the Living. Local coordination of the March is administered by the Center for the Advancement of Jewish Education (CAJE), a subsidiary of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation. The educational journey begins in Miami with a series of training sessions, in which participants learn about the history of Poland and Israel, meet participating Holocaust survivors, and share their own family connections to the Holocaust. Then, the students travel to Poland, where they study the history of pre-war European Jewry and the Holocaust, and examine the roots of prejudice, intolerance and hate. The central impactful “March” of the program is a 3-kilometer walk from the site of the Nazis’ Auschwitz concentration camp to the Birkenau death camp in a silent tribute to all victims of the Holocaust. Since the first March of the Living, more than 250,000 youth from around the world have followed the same path. The Poland portion of the program reaches a crescendo at this ceremony, which demonstrates to the international community that the Jewish people are alive, strong and vibrant. “The March of the Living is about actively entering history, rather than passively studying history,” said Rabbi Arnold Samlan, Executive Director of CAJE. “By visiting the death camps of Eastern Europe, participants undertake a commemorative act, which demonstrates to the world that the deaths of six million Jews and so many others will never be forgotten.” One challenge for organizers, said Samlan, is the environment of Poland itself. Over the years, some of the historic sites have been sanitized and renovated, while others have been damaged or even destroyed.. Local residents have also become accustomed to the annual March and are less apt to be surprised by the influxof young Jews each year. Today, the March is being made more relevant to young participants by emphasizing both the universally human as well as the particularly Jewish experiences of the Holocaust. Educators emphasize the individual obligation to never again allow discrimination directed by any individual or group against another to gain strength. Participants are inspired to commit to building a world free of oppression and intolerance, a world of freedom, democracy and justice for all of people. The March is scheduled each year to coincide with Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) while participants are in Poland. The second leg of the journey takes them to Israel, where they experience the centrality and historical importance of that country to the Jewish people, as well as its role as a modern safe haven for Jews fleeing oppression. After visiting Poland, observing Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day) and celebrating Yom Ha’atzmaut (Independence Day) in Israel is dramatic and moving. LMMOL Manager Aley Sheer explained that this timing is intentional because it helps perpetuate the observance of both occasions in the minds of the March participants. “The chapters of Jewish history that are best remembered are those that have been distinguished by events in the Jewish calendar,” said Sheer. “For example, we remember the slavery in Egypt because we celebrate Passover. The March of the Living experience creates memories that will last throughout the participants’ lifetimes, and will be directly connected withYom HaShoah, Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha’atzmaut. These observances ensure that a new generation will remember and honor the lessons of the Holocaust and its aftermath for years to come.” For Miami participants, Yom Hazikaron has been particularly poignant in recent years because they have spent the day in Yerucham, Miami’s partner city in the Negev region. The participants share the emotional occasion with teens and families from Yerucham, gaining a greater appreciation of sacrifices made to defend the State of Israel. Since its inception, the March of the Living has been enhanced by the participation of Holocaust survivors who have accompanied participants on their journey and shared their memories of the inhumanity inflicted by the Nazis. Seven decades after the defeat of Nazi Germany and the liberation of the concentration camps, many Holocaust survivors have passed away and others are becoming too frail to make the trip. “The survivors have been an irreplaceable asset to the March and have had a profound influence on our program and participants,” said Sheer. “There will come a time when they will be gone, but their testimony and influence will be maintained.” The March of the Living program has been recording the memories and insights of Holocaust survivors to preserve their poignant participation for the future, he said. As the generation of survivors is passing, a goal for the March of the Living is to empower participants as the new advocates of the lessons of the Holocaust. The program’s organizers seek to imbue today’s teens with a sense of morality and fairness that comes from witnessing one of the bloodiest periods of oppression in human history. “We look to the young people who participate in the March to take up the message of the survivors and share that message with the world,” Sheer said. “As we get further in time from the Holocaust period, that mission becomes even more critical, and will preserve the spirit of the survivors into the future.” Morrie Siegel pointed out that the costs of operating the March of the Living have escalated dramatically over the years, presenting still another challenge. Thanks to support from the Greater Miami Jewish Federation and the Friends of the March of the Living, the program is partially underwritten and can offer scholarships to participants. The next March of the Living is scheduled to take place in April 2015 and registration is now open at http://www.caje-miami.org/mol. For more information, contact Aley Sheer of the Center for the Advancement of Jewish Education at 305-576-4030, ext. 143, or [email protected].

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Thousands join March of the Living from Auschwitz to Birkenau

Y Net News  By Michal Margalit Annual event, now in its 27th year, includes delegations from 45 countries, each accompanied by a Holocaust survivor. Thousands of people from around the world arrived in Poland on Thursday for the annual March of the Living walk from the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz to the nearby Birkenau camp, as part of Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day. March of the Living in Auschwitz (Photo: EPA) This year, people from more than 45 countries will take part in the event, with delegations from the United States, Canada, UK, Mexico, Panama, Greece, Australia, Morocco, France, Austria, Argentina, Brazil and South Africa. Each delegation was to be accompanied by a Holocaust survivor who was to tell their own personal story. Now in its 27th year, the March of the Living has been performed by more than 220,000 people. The marchers will work 3.2 km from Auschwitz to the nearby Birkenau camp. Following the two-hour march, a ceremony commemorating the victims of the Holocaust will take place. "It's hard to say how many people are here," Yoram Dori, spokesman for the March of the Living, told Ynet ahead of the march. "But there are thousands here. At the head of the march, just like every year, will be Chairman of Yad Vashem and the Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, himself a Holocaust survivor. He will be joined by dignitaries from Israel and abroad." The march this year will mark 70 years to the end of World War II and the liberation of Auschwitz by the Red Army. An Austrian delegation will join the marchers this year, led by Austrian Education Minister Gabriele Heinisch-Hosek. Other members of the Austrian delegation will include the Second President of the Austrian National Council, Karlheinz Kopf, the head of the Greens party, Dr. Eva Glawischnig, and Susanne Brandsteidl, Executive President of the Vienna Board of Education. They will be accompanied by 300 Austrian teenagers who are not Jewish. "The Austrian delegation is here to show that the education system in the country has been teaching the lessons learned from the Holocaust and the Holocaust topic in general over the past few years," Dori said. "Yesterday, there was a ceremony in Krakow, where the Austrian education minister explained they feel an obligation to participate in the March of the Living. They introduced the topic of the Holocaust to their curriculum as part of the country's fight against anti-Semitism and racism." The US administration sent its Ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council, Keith Harper, to the March of the Living. Harper is a Native American of the Cherokee Tribe and is considered close to President Barack Obama. "Jewish teenagers from all over the world are taking part in the march," Dori said. "They come to Poland for a week for a tour of the extermination camps and other Jewish sites and then return to Israel, as a symbol of the transition from the Holocaust to the liberation, and see Israel's accomplishments, participate in a memorial service for IDF soldiers and then celebrate Independence Day with a march in Jerusalem." "Those who have yet to see the joy on Independence Day of the teens who participated in the March of the Living a week before, have not seen true joy," Dori added. "You can see Jewish teenagers in the March of the Living wrapped in Israeli flags, looking inwards and sad as they're exposed for the first time to the shacks (in the camp), see the suitcases of Jews with their name tags, the Jews' shoes and other items, and you can't stay indifferent to that."

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Team MOTL has 5 Spots in the 2013 New York Marathon

We are very excited to announce that the March of the Living International is an Official Charity Partner for the 2013 New York Marathon! We have 5 coveted spots for…

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Project6Million

You experienced something unique and powerful in your MOTL experience, which only those who have done it can truly understand. We know that feeling, as do thousands of others who have experienced MOTL like you did. It’s a powerful shift, which you’ll want to come back to in you over and over. Here’s where that begins, along with all the other marchers who have experienced it. What is Project6Million? A channel for participants to turn their life-changing experience into an active commitment, impact and inspiration they can share with the world. It’s an interactive, online, global Holocaust remembrance initiative unlike any other. It’s a way for MOTL participants to take a stand from the lessons they’re learning in Poland and Israel, while sharing their commitment to creating a world without the hatred and intolerance that caused the Holocaust. They can inspire a generation to choose differently with even the smallest statement – make a moment to take a stand. It’s easy for you and your delegation to get involved. As you reflect with your group through MOTL, ask them to think about each of our individual roles in perpetuating the message beyond the camps. Go to project6million.org, see the statements of Marchers and people all over the world, and then… take a stand to honor the six million Jewish men, women and children taken in the Holocaust by giving your own statement of commitment to standing up against hatred and intolerance. Your statement will be shared on the project's website and will make a powerful impact for many around the world.  With every 2015 marcher making a statement, an important shift will happen in turning their transformative experience of MOTL into thousands of personal commitments to the world. From there, we share it with others and together, we, as MOTL alumni around the world, can build and spread a global movement of awareness and people dedicated to a better world out of our shared experience. If we do not empower the conversation after the experience, then we have failed.     Together we can go beyond never again, to create a world where tolerance trumps hate. Declare your voice, make your statement, become part of the movement. Make a moment now to take a stand.

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MOTL Partnerships for Alumni Relations: Project6Million

MOTL is partnering to bring a new alumni follow-up process to every participant and supporter this year and beyond. Project6Million, started by alumni from the 2011 Cincinnati MOTL Delegation,…

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Life After The March: Finding The Silver Lining By Miriam Spitz Kahan

My journey began 16 years ago. I was one of thousands who took part in The March of The Living in Poland. I’m still haunted by the memories of what I witnessed. On the day we walked from Auschwitz to Birkenau, in the footsteps of those who were led to their deaths, I remember seeing the numerous Israeli Flags lining the streets, being held in the hands of 5,000 Jews from all over the world and it sparked a flame in my heart. A flag that symbolizes the dream of so many of the millions who perished was there in Poland, waving proudly against the backdrop of the camps where they were murdered, a flag that continues to represent the that dream fulfilled. As with all March of the Living Alumni, while my time in Poland has stayed with me forever, it raised many questions. Reviewing the daily journal that I have kept all these years, I cannot help but think back to those days in Poland. These are some excerpts from the journal: On the plane home: As I sat on the plane returning home, I tried to wrap my mind around the reality that awaited me. How am I going to handle being home? How will I be able to share my experience with people who have no idea of what I’ve seen? It seemed as if my faith and spirit have disappeared in the wake of the horrors that remain with me. All that I know has been turned upside-down. Everyone else is happy to be home. Not me. I don’t know where I belong. What am I to do? I can’t come to terms with what I saw, with how I feel. After 1 month:It is hard for me to honestly describe my transition. But I’m starting to feel detached from my memories, from those souls who perished. My feelings of loss and despair have started to fade. I don’t allow my memories to haunt my every thought, my every move. I do wish that they would. I feel like a sell-out because I’m not remembering every minute, every second those who perished. I wish that I could force myself to mourn openly. I remember touching the walls of the gas chamber at Auschwitz. I look at the stone I took from the ground at Auschwitz and I try to smash it between my fingers, but it is too strong, like the Nazis – completely indestructible. How did the survivors cope with survival? With a return to a world that would never understand what they endured, what they witnessed, and the pain they live with having lost everything and everyone they loved? These questions, and so many more, were just waiting to be answered. But there was a silver lining to the despair I was feeling. I knew that I would be heading back to Israel that summer. I was able to return to the one home where Jews are safe to be Jewish, unlike those who perished in the Holocaust. I fulfilled the old dream, the 2,000 year old dream. “The old dream of a return to a land where we could belong, where we could live free from the hatred and persecution that plagued our existence in Europe...For the Jews who perished, it is in their memory that we must cherish and protect our one and only Jewish State," said Dr. Elana Heideman Executive Director of The Israel Forever Foundation and Holocaust Educator. It was hard for me to comprehend this notion after visiting Israel from Poland as my mind was still closed to the hope, the happiness, the reality of Israel. That summer, I was able to break down the stone wall around my heart and let in the beauty, the hope and the reality of Israel. Tears for all the six million fell as I touched the Kotel (The Western Wall) and left a message asking all the questions needing answers. As I look back on my experience with The March of The Living, I wished there was a global community such as Virtual Citizen’s of Israel™ for all March of The Living alumni that I could have spoken to, listened to, shared my thoughts, my loneliness. Today I am proud to be a part of an organization that is reaching out to those who participated on The March of The Living, whether it was this year, 16 or 25 years ago. Now you can feel a sense of belonging with others who shared your experience and who long for a way to actualize the commitment to the memory of those who perished. Now, you can declare your pride and become a March of The Living Virtual Citizen of Israel™ and know that, together, we carry on a legacy the victims and survivors of the Holocaust would be proud of. Join us so that you too, can remember and reflect what these memories mean for those who did survive, and for us, the next generation who will carry on their legacy as their witness to the witness.

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