The parade of life from the prominent and moving events of Holocaust Martyrs 'and Heroes' Remembrance Day kicks off now (Thursday) at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland, after two years of absence due to the Corona plague.
Following the war in Ukraine, the parade will take place this year in a limited format with about 2,500 people from about 25 countries.
This year's parade will be marked by the last survivors and will be led by a few Holocaust survivors, alongside Polish President Andrzej Duda.
Holocaust survivor Harry Olmer, 94, who lives in London, will take part in the march of life for the sixth time: "I was born and raised in Poland, I was sent to camps and part of my family was murdered in the Holocaust," Olmer told Israel Today.
'The Jewish spirit defeated the Nazi oppressor.
I feel I won because I managed to survive and I also have relatives in Israel.
It is important for me to participate in the parade of life because my relatives were murdered in the Holocaust and the parade commemorates them. "
Ark Hirsch, a 94-year-old Holocaust survivor living in Leeds, England, participates in the parade of life: 'I was born in Poland near Lodz.
The Germans came in and took my family.
My sister and I survived.
I was in Auschwitz and have a number on hand.
My family was murdered in Chelmno.
I was sent to the Lodz ghetto and from there to Auschwitz.
I saw people who were hanged and shot by the Nazis, these are my hard memories of the Holocaust.
It was horrible.
The Germans were barbarians.
I moved to Buchenwald.
The situation was terrible. '
Regarding the importance of the Life March, Hirsch made it clear: 'Unfortunately, people tend to forget.
It is important to show the world what the Germans did in the Holocaust.
They were very cruel. '
March of Life, archive, Photo: Yossi Zeliger
Dozens of refugees from the war in Ukraine will take part in the parade of life this year.
Among the participants in the delegation, initiated by the Shalom Ministry, will also be the Podlipsky family, from the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia who fled to Poland from the war.
Alexander and his wife Olga along with their daughter Vlada and alongside them Grandma Ida and Grandpa Yaffim, became war refugees.
13-year-old Vlada said: "Many of my friends have stayed in Ukraine and I miss them.
It is important for me to participate in the parade of life and to remember the victims of the Holocaust and also to honor the survivors. "
Grandmother Ida emphasized: 'It is impossible to be here in Poland and not to be on the parade of life, especially in light of what has happened in Ukraine.
I look forward to the day when the situation in Ukraine will calm down so that we can return there because we have left relatives in Ukraine and our whole lives.
I hope there will be peace in Ukraine soon. '
Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Leon with his wife and father at the entrance to Auschwitz, Photo: Yossi Zeliger
The mayor of Jerusalem, Moshe Leon, said: "We arrived at the Auschwitz extermination camp.
The plays are chilling and hard to digest.
I am proud and excited to open a tradition of leading the "Jerusalem Delegation" to the Parade of Life.
Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, and I who head it, salute the Holocaust survivors and we will never remember or forget its victims.
Their longing for Zion and their vision for the establishment of a Jewish state, are what led us to be able to stand here today and share with them the respect they deserve.
The State of Israel and Jerusalem, its eternal capital, are the guarantee for the security of all Jews around the world. "
The parade will be dedicated to the fight against anti-Semitism and the transfer of the torch of remembrance from the generation of survivors to the generation of grandchildren.
Among the marchers will be an official delegation of the United Arab Emirates, which will join for the first time the parade of life on Polish soil, alongside the opening of a new branch of the organization in the Emirates.
The historic delegation will be led by Ahmad Obeid al-Mansuri, the founder of the first Arab museum in the Arab world to commemorate the Holocaust, alongside entrepreneur and philanthropist Eitan Nishlos, founder of the Nishlos Foundation and a third generation Holocaust survivor, founder and new ambassador of the Gulf March.
The two will light a memorial torch together at the annual official ceremony held in Auschwitz-Birkenau and will join the Holocaust survivors and the many delegations as part of the International Life March.
The March of Life in Previous Years (Archive), Photo: Yossi Zeliger
In addition, for the first time in the Life March, a special world delegation of victims of antisemitism of the Jewish Agency will participate, which consists of victims of antisemitic attacks around the world, including those who themselves were harmed by antisemitism and those who lost family members in deadly antisemitic attacks.
Another delegation will be from Germany, departing from Berlin and will include teenagers and adults, descendants of Holocaust victims and descendants of Nazis, in order to commemorate the Holocaust, to convey a message of reconciliation and protest against anti-Semitism.
The Life March will also be attended by delegations from the Jewish National Fund, the Jewish Agency, and the Mayor of Jerusalem, Moshe Leon, who will lead a municipal delegation.
The parade will be concluded with the traditional ceremony on the ruins of the crematorium in Birenkau.
Eitan Nishlos, Third Generation of Holocaust Survivors, with Ahmad al-Mansuri, Emirates Representative, Photo: Tali Netpov
In an exciting torch-lighting ceremony in Auschwitz, Eitan Nishlos, a third-generation Holocaust survivor, said: "Together with my brother and friend, Ahmad Obeidi al-Mansuri of the United Arab Emirates, the founder of the first Holocaust museum in the Arab world, we light the torch about a year after the historic Avraham agreements.
"We are sending a clear message to our people, to the Middle East and to the whole world - we stand firm and united against hatred in all its forms."
Nichlos added: "I stand here as the grandson of the late Holocaust survivor Tamara Zitzerman, whose story and memories we discovered in this shoebox after her death;
Memories I carry with me today.
My grandmother was saved thanks to the sacrifice of a Christian family, the Chodesevich family.
In the face of inhumanity, they chose to act heroically, and for their heroism - they paid with their lives. "
The emirate's representative, Ahmad al-Mansuri, said: "I stand here full of hope.
Full of inspiration and courage.
I stand here today, knowing that we can overcome, and we will overcome, the darkness of the past and the darkness of the present, so that we can ensure a happy and blessed future for all our people. "
Al-Mansuri emphasized that: "Like the children of our ancestor Abraham, who came together under the covenant of Abraham, we say - أبدًا يعني أبدًا (never again, in Arabic).
Blessed be the memory of the victims of the Holocaust. "
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