Thousands attend March of the Living in Auschwitz
Israel pays tribute to Holocaust victims, after Israeli leaders urge world to confront Iranian nuclear threat.
By Haaretz Service and The Associated Press Tags: Benjamin Netanyahu Holocaust Israel newsThousands of young Jews along with Holocaust survivors marched Monday at Auschwitz to remember those who perished in the Nazi death camp.
The 10,000 or so people from around the world attending the annual March of the Living walked the stretch of about 3 kilometers (2 miles) between the red-brick Auschwitz compound and the death camp's wooden barracks section of Birkenau.
At least 1.1 million people - mostly Jews - died in the gas chambers at Auschwitz or from starvation, disease and forced labor at the camp that German Nazis built in occupied Poland during World War II, which was only liberated at the end of the war in 1945.
Many in Monday's annual march also wore black arm bands or carried black ribbons in memory of Poland's President Lech Kaczynski and his wife, Maria, who were killed in a plane crash Saturday along with 94 others en route to WWII-era observances in western Russia.
Israeli Ambassador Zvi Rav-Ner read out a message in Hebrew, English and Polish saying this year's marchers were also paying homage to Kaczynski and the other plane crash victims.
Lech Kaczynski and his wife were friends of the state of Israel and of the Jewish nation. Today we will march in solidarity with the entire Polish nation, Rav-Ner said while standing by the infamous gate with a sign reading Arbeit Macht Frei, or Work Makes You Free.
The inscription was meant to mislead inmates into thinking they were arriving at Auschwitz to work, not die. The metal sign now in place is a replica of the original, which is undergoing renovation after it was stolen in December and recovered two days later.
By tradition, the march started with the blowing of the shofar, or ram's horn, at the gate.
Earlier Monday Israel fell silent as a two-minute-long siren wailed across the country to mark Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Day.
As the siren sounded at 10 A.M., traffic came to a total standstill. Drivers stood next to their cars and pedestrians stopped walking, many of them standing at attention or with their heads bowed.
The siren opened the annual memorial at Yad Vashem, Israel's state Holocaust memorial authority, in Jerusalem. Wreaths were laid at the foot of the memorial for the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.
Other ceremonies will be held throughout the day at Kibbutz Yad Mordechai and Kibbutz Lohamei Hagetaot, as well as in schools and military bases.
Yad Vashem picked "Voices of the Survivors" as the theme of this year's commemoration, which began Sunday night with a state ceremony and continues through Monday evening. A special exhibition of the works of Holocaust survivors will open at Yad Vashem on Monday afternoon.
"The voice of the survivors is the link that binds the painful and tormented history of the Jewish people during the Holocaust to the future, to hope and to rebirth," Yad Vashem said on its Web site.
Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin on Monday opened the Every Person Has a Name ceremony by reading aloud the names of children who had taken shelter in France only to be found and sent to Auschwitz.
President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, opposition leader Tzipi Livni, Knesset members and Holocaust survivors also participated in the ceremony.
Peres read the names of his own family members and recounted their story, including that of his grandfather Rabbi Zvi Meltzer, who was rounded up with other Jews in the Vishniev synagogue that was then torched by Nazis.
Peres commemorated "my family members, who were slaughtered with 2,060 of their fellow community members in Vishniev in August 1942 at the hands of the Nazis and their local conspirators, who gathered the city's residents in the wooden synagogue and brutally murdered by shooting and fire."
At the end of the ceremony, Israeli Arab MK Ahmed Tibi said he has deep empathy for Holocaust survivors. "The Holocaust is the worst crime in modern history that was executed by the Nazi killing machine, which was based on racist theories that were ugly and cruel," said Tibi.
Netanyahu on Sunday spoke at the state ceremony on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, and called on the world "to confront Iran's exterminatory intentions and act resolutely to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons."
"The historic failure of free societies to confront the Nazi beast was that they did not face it in time," Netanyahu said at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. "And today we are witness to the old hatred of Jews once again, fueled by extremist Islamic authorities, led by Iran and its satellites."
"Iran's leadership is racing to develop nuclear weapons and declares its intention to destroy Israel. The world is gradually accepting Iran's exterminatory declarations regarding Israel and still we do not see the international determination required to stop the arming of Iran. But if we learned something from the Holocaust, it is that we cannot remain quiet or flinch in the face of evil."
Earlier in the ceremony, Peres said the world must not repeat its indifference at the face of new cries for the destruction of the Jewish people.
Peres went on to say that "Israel will never forget the two decrees which the Holocaust enforced".
"The firm demand to sustain an independent Jewish state, one that holds its security in its own hands while at the same time tirelessly seeking peace as well as the demand to treat threats of annihilation, Holocaust denials, and terror mongering with the utmost severity."
A study released hours before the opening ceremony found that anti-Semitic incidents doubled worldwide last year compared with 2008, with researchers counting 1,129 incidents of physical violence.
The Tel Aviv University report concluded that Muslim groups and radical leftists used Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip last year, meant to stop rocket attacks on neighboring Israeli communities, to promote their campaign of anti-Semitism.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Barack Obama also marked Holocaust Remembrance Day on Sunday evening with a statement honoring the memory of "those who endured the horrors" of the Nazi atrocities of World War II.
"The world must never tolerate anti-Semitism or any other form of prejudice," Obama said.
About 220,000 aging survivors, many of them destitute and alone, live in Israel, down 50,000 from just two years earlier.
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Thousands attending the annual March of the Living in Auschwitz on Monday. |
| Photo by: (AP) |
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Thank You, wish there where more like you then the others on both side. You may be on the otherside of the world, but I consider you my good nieghbor.
get a life tootsie
Britain used to have some goo decent people but we left
to dave, nr. 2, anti-semitism is a term which is too narrow. we can better say the world must not tollerate: intollerance, racism, apartheid, xenophobia, discrimination, segregation, violations of civil and human rights, unjustice, (neo-)fascism, (neo-)nazism, supremacy of one people above other people(s)(uebermenschen and untermenschen), dictatorships. long live freedom of expression, speech, opinion, democracy and just civil and human rights for all of us worldwide!
holocaust remembrance, the rest of the world does
How about not foisting your ignorant and worthless commens on readers of this forum?
Keith - instead of your non-sense ill-informed remarks, say a prayer for the millions who just decades ago were mercilessly murdered simply for being Jewish, and not having harmed anyone in any way - on the contrary, having provided humanity with some of the greatest advances. Thank you. Richard,
The holocaust should not be used has a political tool to whip up support for Israel and its governemnt. This is the lowest of the low, it's a disgrace. Europe had millions upon millions die during WWII. The trick is not to dwell on it, it plays hell with your mind and you'll always have a sense of insecurity through keeping it in your thoughts.
Foisting Israel on the Middle East and populating it with Americans and Russians has done nothing to foster goodwill towards Jews.
Have you even thought that their own pain and suffering does not allow them to pay any attention or any respect to the yours. Think about! You are just reproducing the same mechanisms.
The most important lesson the holocaust can teach us is that Jews cannot rely on anybody or any country to defend them. Jews must defend themselves and Israel is the ultimate defender of all Jews.
To those who can't see far tha their noses, amongst the just who saved hundred of thousands jews. I mean the king of Morocco Mohammed the fifth. Ask the international moroccan jewish association members who are israeli citizens too. And Mohammed the fifth was a fervent muslim who ruled under muslim law.(not islamic which means something very différent)
100% agree
While on the Tel Aviv University campus during the sirens, I was moved by the number of people standing in silence for two minutes. I was more upset by the few females wearing Moslem head covering who expressed their defiance and insensitivities by continuing their walk and conversation throught the two minutes.
Enough is enough.
We should all remember the holocaust and the millions of Jews who perished. The holocaust showed the worst in human nature. Of course this should never happen again, but peace in the middle-east must prevail. Peace to all.
The Germans were defeated in WW1.
why do you go by anonymous we should cry for Armenian genocide as much as we can i am not Armenian but i make it my business to remember
sirens of sorrow go off in my heart every day of my life and every time a baby is born i grieve the murder of 1,500,000 jewish children. for my eulogy after i die they can say"she never forgot them" to repeat what Simon Wiesenthal said.
Jews and Armenians should be standing together in remembrance of their genocides. Hitler said at the doors of Poland "who remembers the Armenians?" No one came to the rescue of the Armenians, as they were exterminated. Under censorship, they carried out the genocide, hidden from the world. Armenian survivors carried the pain all their life, some living with mental imbalance, some committing suicide. We must never forget the Armenian genocide. If Germany had been defeated in WWI, maybe we would not have had to fight Germany in WWII and there would have been no Holocaust.
The Palestinians...formerly Syrians...have tripled in number since the rebirth of Israel, while the point of the German lead Holocaust was systematic extermination of all the Jewish people worldwide. There is not even a remote similarity for the two events.
For over sixty years there has been conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. And everyone in the region is responsible for that. Who will be the heroes that will bring this conflict to an end?- Where are those, on both sides, who are willing to take major steps necessary for peace? Who is willing to sacrifice their selfish goals and objectives so that peaceful coexistence might prevail? Not only did Hitler kill 6 million Jews, but he also killed 6 million non Jews- all of whom are to be remembered on Holocaust Day. And those who helped to save Jews during Nazi times, will Always be remembered and admired for their heroism. As for the Hitlerian Anti-Semites, they couldn`t help but fan the flames of hatred and prejudice toward Zionists/Jews. Yet even they should be remembered. So too should the raving Anti- Semites, and haters of Palestinans on this forum. We should all be remembered and realize that we are all responsible.
To my brothers and sisters in Jerusalem and Israel, Before the Holocaust ever began the Eternal Sacrifice was made for your restoration to begin. Adonai speaks to his "Chosen Ones' for the final hour of Jerusalem and Israels' completed restoration. Out of bones and ashes,you have been restored, True Believers stand by you all over the world. Those who seek your destruction will face theirs, soon enough!
including those religious zionist hoodlums who would perpetrate their own brand of violence, inspired bigotry on their imaginary biblical foes in the West Bank and Gaza and the world should renounce those governments who ferment religious inspired hatred by means of bellicose statements and actions on so called holy sites and cities and references to their indivisibility and outright ownership. Oh yes and Iran too...
funny how you expect people to forget the nakba, (spelling), yet you cling to this as an excuse to get away with ..........
Yom hashoa. Can the state of Israel not afford to show the survivng 220,000 people a semblance of dignity when so many of them are reportedly living alone and destitute. Help them, care for them more than you do. Dont argue bitterly about who should or should not fly first class and what the trip time qualifier should be. How awfully selfish and self indulgent you politicians are. Do something decent for a change that does not fill your own pockets.
It seems do unto others as was done unto you is your moto regarding inhumane treatment meeted out to the Pals. I and many others the world over will never support Isreal untill they stop their inhuman treatment of pals for a 3000yr story.
"The world must never tolerate anti-Semitism or any other form of prejudice,"
what happened to the jews in europe and the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime are very horrible and bad. every human being should feel sympathetic with those who lost their lives in the ghettos. this is a very sorrowful event in human history and we should prevent another holocaust to occur to any race, color or minority. i am, as a Palestinian person, hope that we should live side by side with our israeli friends in peace and security.
My sincere condolences to everyone who has lost family and friends during that horrible genocide. Despite what Jewish people may think, many of us share your grief, and respect the sacrifice Jewish people have suffered just because their names were different. This is especially true of Bosniaks, having suffered similar fate to your own. We all may have our disagreements and differences, but none deserve to be killed for them, be they Jewish, Muslim or Christian. May it never happen to anyone ever again, for truly: "If you kill one it is as if you have killed the whole world, and if you save one it is if you have saved the whole world." On one last note; I will not go into politics, but to use this day to further political agenda - like Mr. Netanyahu does - shames the victims and diminishes this solemn and sad occasion. This is a day of remembrance and grief, not petty squabbles. Honor it as such.
If Nakba is all but forbidden, then so should any holocaust ceremonies be too.
& when Moses said to his people verily U have oppressed yourselves by taking calf so repent to your fashioner so fight yourownself,that will be better for U near your fashioner, so He turned to U, verily He is turning merciful.& when U all said to Moses we shall never believe U untill we see God openly so lightening took U & U were watching.Then we raised U after your death so U may thank.& we sheltered U with clouds & we sent down to U Manna & Salva, eat what good nourishment we give U, & we did not oppress them but they oppressed themselves.& we said enter this settlement so eat from where U wish plenty & enter the gate prostrating & say forgiveness we shall forgive your faults & we shall give more to righteous. So those who oppressed changed word said to them to other so we sent down on those who oppressed filth from heaven as they broke(commandment)
including those religious zionist hoodlums who would perpetrate their own brand of bigot inspired violence on their imaginary biblical foes in the West Bank and Gaza and those governments who ferment religious inspired hatred by means of bellicose statements and actions on so called holy sites and cities and references to their indivisibility and outright ownership. Oh yes and Iran too...