Two people from the Middle East participated in this year’s March of the Living, speaking to Israel National News on Tuesday about their experience visiting Auschwitz.

Anas Syari is a 27-year-old from Morocco with a PhD in political science who is a businessman. He explained that going on March of the Living to Auschwitz-Birkenau is life changing for him.

“It’s going to be a life-changing event for me and not only for me but also for my family, for my friends and for my surroundings back in Morocco,” he said.

“Why? Because there is a lesson to to be taught by visiting this event which is that such hate and atrocity that occurred in this place should never happen again in all over the world. This is the lesson that we learned today and this is the lesson that we will be propagating in our surroundings in the future,” he added.

Roza AlHarbi, 24, a cybersecurity specialist from Bahrain, also plans to share her experience with family and friends back home.

“We’re here on the March of the Living to [experience] the tragedy that has happened here and to educate ourselves more about the Holocaust and to transmit this information to our people back home so we can build bridges between the people of Bahrain and Israel," she said.

The annual March of the Living took place on Tuesday from Auschwitz to Auschwitz-Birkenau, marking Israel’s national Holocaust Memorial Day. The March of the Living – taking place for the 35th year – was led by 40 Holocaust Survivors, alongside more than 13,000 participants from 25 countries around the world.