March of the Living Held at Auschwitz with Participation of Italian President Sergio Mattarella

March of the living 2023 Auschwitz (Photo Credit: Yossi Zeliger / Courtesy)

The annual March of the Living took place Tuesday from Auschwitz I to Auschwitz-Birkenau, marking Israel’s national Holocaust Memorial Day – known as Yom HaShoah in Hebrew. 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.

The theme of this year’s March of the Living was “Honoring Jewish Heroism in the Holocaust” marking the 80th anniversary of the heroic Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The uprising lasted four weeks and has become a symbol of Jewish courage and heroism during the Holocaust. Addressing the ceremony at Auschwitz-Birkenau was Italian President Sergio Mattarella, as well as Israel’s Minister of Education, Yoav Kisch. Minister Kisch spoke of how his grandfather had fought, and fallen in battle against the Nazis as the highest ranking Jewish servicemen in the British army in WWII. He pledged that Israel would continue to fight antisemitism and hold dear the memory of the victims of the Holocaust.

In addition, this year’s March of the Living included for the first time in history a bi-partisan US delegation led by US Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides, and his predecessor Ambassador David Friedman. Also, Israeli entrepreneur and philanthropist Haim Taib, lit a memorial torch in memory of the Jewish communities in North Africa who suffered under Nazi occupation – many of whom were imprisoned or deported to camps.

Among the 40 survivors leading the March of the Living was Warsaw-born Holocaust Survivor, Halina Birenbaum, who was a child during the uprising and was hidden in a bunker until the Nazis liquidated the Ghetto. She was deported to Majdanek and later to Auschwitz. She was accompanied by grandchildren of Jewish resistance fighters: Eyal Zuckerman, granddaughter of ŻOB commanders Zivia Lubetkin and Yitzhak (Antek) Zuckerman; and Nir Yaari, grandson of a resistance fighter, Bela Hazan Yaari.

Also lighting torches at the ceremony was Jewish-American businessman Robert Kraft; philanthropist, Miriam Adelson; Mark Wilf, Chair of the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel; Ifat Ovadia Luski, Chair of KKL-JNF.

Addressing the ceremony at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the President of Italy, Sergio Mattarella, said, “Dear survivors, dear youth. We are here today to remember and pay tribute to the millions of victims of the bloodthirsty Nazi regime, whose atrocious crimes against humanity were enabled by the complicity of European fascist rulers, who handed over their own fellow citizens to their torturers. Such crimes shall never be forgotten nor forgiven.”

He stressed, “Today is Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. Remembering is a part of our commitment. It is proof that, against the standard-bearers of oblivion, memory wins. To state how proud we are when we strive to be “human beings,” to reaffirm “never again”.

Lighting the first-ever torch at the annual ceremony at the March of the Living dedicated to the Jews of North Africa, Haim Taib said, “My grandfather was sent, along with thousands of Jewish men, to Nazi forced-labor camps in occupied Tunisia, where he was starved, beaten and tortured. His story reflects the reality of the Jewish communities of Tunisia and North Africa under Nazi occupation.” He was accompanied by his wife Iris, whose grandmother survived Auschwitz. Iris explained, “I am proud to stand here today in memory of my grandmother. The Nazis gave her a number and I wear it too. A10299, this number is tattooed on my arm, also in memory of your sisters, Bluma and Ibi who never left this place.”