The walk, repeated for the past 19 years on Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, parallels the march of death, taken by hundreds of thousands of starving, emaciated Jews, some no more than walking skeletons, as they trekked two miles from the horrors of the Auschwitz concentration camp to Birkenau, where they were gassed and cremated.
Both places, located in Poland, were actually part of a single complex, one of many set up by the Germans to rapidly and efficiently destroy European Jewry. Over 1.1 million Jews were exterminated at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. Six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust that lasted through World War II, from 1939 – 1945 .
Israeli officials, representing the Jewish state that arose out of the ashes of the Holocaust, typically accompany the marchers. This year’s march included Knesset Member Shimon Peres, government minister Avraham Herschson, and Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, former Chief Rabbi of Israel and currently the Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv. Marchers proudly waved Israeli flags and sang Hatikvah (The Hope), Israel’s national anthem.
Peres, 82, and Hershson completed the entire two-mile journey that started with the blast of a shofar, a ram’s horn, that signifies Israel’s redemption from exile.
Rabbi Lau, himself a Holocaust survivor, compared Hitler with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadenijad, who has repeatedly called for Israel’s destruction.
“When Hitler wrote his book, "Mein Kampf," about his intention to destroy the Jews people laughed. Ten years later when he became the head of the [German] Reich, he repeated his intentions and the racist Nuremberg laws were not hidden. The world said ‘this is not possible. The world - no one - will let this happen.’ Today there are people who deny the Holocaust. We must take the Iranian president’s words very seriously and pay attention to them, and to Bin Laden’s as well.”
The vice-chairman of Poland’s parliament, the governor of Krakow, a representative of France’s beleaguered Jewish community, and Israel’s ambassador to Poland also marched with the crowd.
Among the 8000 marchers were Jews from around the world, as well as many non-Jews who made up about 30% of the participants.
This year’s march was smaller than the one last year which marked the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Russian troops.
Diana Katz, a 23-year-old history teacher from Jerusalem, accompanied her grandmother, Lubia Tanenbaum, on this year’s march. Tanenbaum survived the camp after arriving as a 14-year-old from Hungary.
Interviewed by Fox news, Katz said, "I am here with my son to show the evil people in the world that we are here, that we are alive, that we want to live and we want future generations to live."
As she pushed a baby carriage holding her three-month old son, Yosef, she said, "We will not forget, and we have won."
Both places, located in Poland, were actually part of a single complex, one of many set up by the Germans to rapidly and efficiently destroy European Jewry. Over 1.1 million Jews were exterminated at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. Six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust that lasted through World War II, from 1939 – 1945 .
Israeli officials, representing the Jewish state that arose out of the ashes of the Holocaust, typically accompany the marchers. This year’s march included Knesset Member Shimon Peres, government minister Avraham Herschson, and Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, former Chief Rabbi of Israel and currently the Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv. Marchers proudly waved Israeli flags and sang Hatikvah (The Hope), Israel’s national anthem.
Peres, 82, and Hershson completed the entire two-mile journey that started with the blast of a shofar, a ram’s horn, that signifies Israel’s redemption from exile.
Rabbi Lau, himself a Holocaust survivor, compared Hitler with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadenijad, who has repeatedly called for Israel’s destruction.
“When Hitler wrote his book, "Mein Kampf," about his intention to destroy the Jews people laughed. Ten years later when he became the head of the [German] Reich, he repeated his intentions and the racist Nuremberg laws were not hidden. The world said ‘this is not possible. The world - no one - will let this happen.’ Today there are people who deny the Holocaust. We must take the Iranian president’s words very seriously and pay attention to them, and to Bin Laden’s as well.”
The vice-chairman of Poland’s parliament, the governor of Krakow, a representative of France’s beleaguered Jewish community, and Israel’s ambassador to Poland also marched with the crowd.
Among the 8000 marchers were Jews from around the world, as well as many non-Jews who made up about 30% of the participants.
This year’s march was smaller than the one last year which marked the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Russian troops.
Diana Katz, a 23-year-old history teacher from Jerusalem, accompanied her grandmother, Lubia Tanenbaum, on this year’s march. Tanenbaum survived the camp after arriving as a 14-year-old from Hungary.
Interviewed by Fox news, Katz said, "I am here with my son to show the evil people in the world that we are here, that we are alive, that we want to live and we want future generations to live."
As she pushed a baby carriage holding her three-month old son, Yosef, she said, "We will not forget, and we have won."