Thousands of people, including about 40 Holocaust survivors, are participating in the "March of Life" in Auschwitz today (Tuesday). From the grandchildren of the Warsaw Ghetto rebels.
To date, throughout the years of the parade, more than 300 thousand people have participated in it.
25 delegations from countries will participate in the 35th parade this year, which after about three years reduced due to the effect of the corona epidemic, will return to full format.
The parade is marked by "Jewish heroism in the Holocaust and the human spirit", on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
As part of the main ceremony of the parade, which will be held at the Birkenau camp memorial site, Italian President Sergio Mattarella, former chief rabbi and Holocaust survivor Israel Meir Lau and Minister of Education Yoav Kish will speak, and seven torches will be lit.
Participants in the Hayim parade, today (photo: official website, Yossi Zeliger)
Thus, the Jewish-American businessman Robert Kraft will carry a torch in the sign of the fight against anti-Semitism;
Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Jewish Agency Mark Wilf will light a torch in the symbol of the second generation; Iris and Haim Taib will carry the torch of the third generation, which this year will be dedicated to the Holocaust of the Jews of Tunisia; Vice Chairman of the March of Life Baruch Adler will light a torch that will be dedicated to the followers of the nations of the world;
Past and present US ambassadors Tom Neides and David Friedman, who will lead a bipartisan delegation from the United States, will light a torch in the symbol of "the security of the Jewish people"; businesswoman Miriam Adelson, publisher of "Israel Hayom", will light a torch in the symbol of "preservation and transmission of memory";
Whereas the chairman of the National Fund for Israel, Yifat Ovadia Loski, will light a torch "for the rise of the State of Israel."
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The March of Life in the Auschwitz extermination camp in Poland. April 18, 2023 (photo: official website, Yossi Zeliger)
Birnbaum, writer and poet, was born in Warsaw.
During the uprising she hid in a bunker in the ghetto, and after she was captured she was sent to Majdanek and from there to Auschwitz.
She is also known to the Israeli public as the mother of the songwriter and producer Yaakov Gilad, who wrote the song "Ash and Dust" for her.
Apart from her, Shoshana Trister, an artist born in Khodorov, who grew up in hiding as a little girl, and Aryeh Pinsker, born in Hungary and a survivor of Auschwitz, will also participate in the parade.
Eil Zuckerman, the granddaughter of the senior leaders of the Jewish Fighting Organization and the leaders of the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto, Tzvia Lovatkin and Antek Zuckerman, and Nir Yaeri, the granddaughter of Bela Yaeri - also a member of the underground organization, and a survivor of Auschwitz - will also march alongside them.
At the ceremony, the Hebrew singer Ivri Lider, himself a second-generation survivor of the Holocaust, will also appear, while Shai Abramson, the chief military cantor, will lead the prayer "God full of mercy".
"This year we are giving a platform to Jewish heroism in the Holocaust," explained Dr. Shmuel Rosenman, chairman of the March of Life.
"For years, the Jews were presented as a mere victim, who went like sheep to the slaughter. Young people in Israel and throughout the Jewish world do not know enough about the many acts of heroism performed by hundreds and thousands of Jews during the Holocaust, and as an international education organization it is our job to emphasize this."
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Helena Birnbaum