Arutz Sheva sat down for a talk with March of the Living World Chair Dr. Shmuel Rosenman. The “March of the Living” Holocaust educational programs combine a visit to the Nazi extermination camps with a trip to Israel. Arutz Sheva will be present during the current trip to cover the march.

Rosenman explains that the power of March of the Living lies in the ability of each participant to return as an agent of change within his own community. “In the past 30 years, over 250,000 students from all over the world participated in the march. Those students go back to their communities and families, schools, and each one of them serves as an agent of change within his or her community. Each one passes on the message of ‘Never Again,’ and I think this has been the biggest success of March of the Living.”

He noted how the trips create a particularly emotional experience by combining the themes of two different days on the Jewish calendar. “It’s two very strong emotional experiences blended together, a combination of two days on the Jewish calendar: Holocaust Remembrance Day and Israeli Independence Day, and this is something that the students take back home with them.”

Rosenman also talked about March of the Living’s special educational initiative this year to bring education ministers from all over the world to join March of the Living. “It’s 70 years after the war. The number of survivors who can now accompany the students is diminishing dramatically and soon there won’t be any left. This means that the responsibility of the educational leadership becomes much more important, [to integrate Holocaust education into] the curriculum, to establish more ways for people to visit museums and learn more,. Today, students are still dependent on the survivors, but tomorrow it’s going to be history versus history – and then, I don’t know who the winner is going to be.”

He pointed out that the makeup of the trips has evolved over time to include non-Jewish students as well as Jewish ones. “The Holocaust is not a Jewish issue, it’s an issue that the entire world should take [seriously], and the only way this is possible is via the main road of education. To come to see, feel touch, with Jewish students gives extra strength, and hopefully, they influence their own friends when they come home.”

Originally published HERE