35th anniversary of the March of the Living on 18 April in Oswiecim/Auschwitz with trainees from Emden, Wolfsburg and Osnabrück. :: International Auschwitz Committee :: Remember the past, be responsible for the future ::

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16.04.2023

35th anniversary of the March of the Living on 18 April in Oswiecim/Auschwitz with trainees from Emden, Wolfsburg and Osnabrück.

The March of the Living (Hebrew מצעד החיים Mitzad HaChajim) is a walk of remembrance from Auschwitz I concentration camp to Birkenau extermination camp. Since it was founded in 1988, more than 300,000 participants from 50 countries have taken part on Yom HaShoah – Holocaust Remembrance Day – in memory of all the victims of the Holocaust and walked together along the 3-km-long path from Auschwitz to Birkenau. Image: facebook.com/MOTLorg

Links:

https://www.motl.org/

Since 1988 more than 300,000, mostly Jewish, young people from around the world have taken part in the March of the Living, walking in a column along the three-kilometre-long path from Auschwitz I concentration camp to Birkenau extermination camp. This walk of remembrance is dedicated to the memory of those murdered in Auschwitz, and in honour of the survivors.

The march is held each year in April in connection with Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, Yom HaShoah, on 17/18 April. It also commemorates the start of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising on 19 April 1943 which took place exactly 80 years ago. For some years now more and more non-Jewish young people from around the globe have also been taking part in the March of the Living to demonstrate their committed stance against anti-Semitism, intolerance and racist hatred.

On Tuesday 18 April, thousands of young people from around the world will once more gather at the Auschwitz entrance gate with the infamous inscription ARBEIT MACHT FREI (work makes you free), joining together in the 35th March of the Living. This year’s march will also include a group of 15 trainees from Volkswagen in Emden, Wolfsburg and Osnabrück. They will be travelling to the March of the Living with the International Auschwitz Committee and will then spend time helping with maintenance and conservation work at the memorial. Speaking in Oswiecim/Auschwitz, Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee said:

"In this year in particular, when in a few days’ time the world commemorates the 80th anniversary of the seemingly hopeless and yet immensely defiant uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto, the March of the Living sends out a special signal of human warmth and encouragement to the survivors of the Holocaust. Many of them are suffering not only under the current outbreaks of hate, anti-Semitism and violence; they are also especially distressed by the bloody war of aggression against Ukraine, which is constantly plunging them into renewed horrific memories. The fact that the many young people on the March of the Living also include young people from Germany wishing to express their solidarity with the survivors and helping to conserve ‘their’ memorial, is of great importance and meaningfulness to them."

To the website "March of the Living"