Thousands take part in March of the Living
For 21st time, teens, WWII veterans, Jews, non-Jews all march together in commemoration of death marches between Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps
Thousands of marchers on Thursday reconstructed the journey taken by the prisoners of the Auschwitz extermination camp to the adjacent Birkenau camp in Poland.
Dozens of delegations from around the world, comprised of Jews and non-Jews took part in the march which is being held for the 21st time in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.
Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau who took part in the march said: "We are talking about six million, 1.5 million children. These numbers are so large that we can barely imagine it.
"How can we identify with murder on such a large scale, astronomical numbers? We need to talk about the community and the families. We need to talk about the essence of one man as if he were many."
Among the delegations was one from Israel's Justice Ministry, which was joined by delegations from Australia, the US and Europe. This year, some 2,000 Polish teens also joined the march; they were accompanied by World War II veterans from the US and Canada who took part in the liberation of the concentration camps.
The israeli delegation (Photo: EPA)
Speaking at the event Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino noted: "67 years ago my commander the late David Kraus who lost many member's of his family, walked out of this camp, Auschwitz. He survived the Nazi killing machine and made aliyah, 40 years later he became the police commissioner of Israel's police department."
A two-minute siren sounded across the country at 10 am on Thursday in memory of the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust.
The siren kicked off memorial services nationwide, including a wreath-laying ceremony at Jerusalem's Benjamin Netanyahu, President Benny Gantz were among the officials to lay wreaths in memory of the Nazis' victims.
The Holocaust Remembrance Day events will draw to a close at 8 pm with a service at Kibbutz Yad Mordechai. Chief of Staff Benny Gantz will be present at the closing ceremonies there and at The Ghetto Fighters' House which will mark 70 years since the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto.
