35: MOTL

The 35^th March of the Living took place yesterday.

(The 35th Anniversary of the March of the Living in April 18, 2023.)

This years March of the Living had 40 Holocaust Survivors and 13,000 Participants.

This year’s theme was:  Honor the heroism of Jews during the Holocaust since 2023 is the 80th Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

The March of the Living is an annual educational program which brings Students from around the world to Poland, where they explore the remnants of the Holocaust.

On Israeli Holocaust Memorial Day observed in the Jewish Calendar (Yom HaShoah), thousands of Participants march silently 1.8 miles  from Auschwitz 1 (the Main Camp) to Auschwitz- Birkenau (the Death Camp) at the largest Nazi Concentration Camp complex built during World War II.

1.1  Million Men, Women and Children (mostly Jews) were murdered by the Germans at Auschwitz (out of the 1.3 Million People deported to the Camp.)

After spending a week in Poland visiting other sites of Nazi Germany's persecution, such as Majdanek, Treblinka, and the Warsaw Ghetto, and former sites of Jewish Life and Culture, various Synagogues, many of the Participants in the March also travel on to Israel where they observe Yom Hazikaron (Israel's Remembrance Day) and celebrate Yom Haatzmaut (Israel's Independence Day).

History: The March of the Living was started as Communism was ending in Poland in 1988.

The March of the Living is meant to symbolize the Death Marches the Germans forced the Jews and other Concentration Camp Victims to take before the Allied Armies liberated the Camps.

The largest Death March occurred at Auschwitz on January 17, 1945 as the Soviet Red Army was nearby.

56,000 Prisoners were forced to march, on foot, out of Auschwitz in the cold and snow.  Anyone who stopped to rest or fell down was shot by the Germans and left on the road.

15,000 Prisoners from Auschwitz were killed during the Death March.

The Past 35 Years:  In the 35 years of the  March of the Living 300 Holocaust Survivors and 300,000 Participants from 50 Countries have taken part.