Despite Russia’s inhumane aggression against Ukraine – which continues today – the memory of the Holocaust remains a timeless warning that we must not ignore, Italian President Sergio Mattarella said at the main ceremony of the March of the Living in Auschwitz on Tuesday.
This year’s March, which commemorates the victims of the Holocaust, highlighted the heroism of the Jews during the Holocaust. The event coincided with the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, but also coincided with the 75th anniversary of the founding of Israel and the 35th anniversary of the first March of the Living.
The signal for departure – in the early afternoon – was the sound of the shofar, a liturgical instrument made from a ram’s horn. The column departed from the historic gate “Arbeitmacht frei” in the former German camp Auschwitz I. It was led by about 40 Holocaust survivors. Among them was Halina Birenbaum, prisoner of four German camps.
About 10,000 participants – Jews from all over the world and several hundred Polish students – reached the former Auschwitz II-Birkenau via the streets of Oświęcimia and Brzezinka. There, at the monument to the victims of the camp, which is located between the ruins of the two largest crematoriums, the main ceremony in commemoration of the murdered took place.
During the conversation, the President of Italy, Sergio Mattarella, spoke. He stressed that “today more than ever before the themes and arguments that poisoned the 1930s are resurfacing”.
Despite Russia’s inhumane aggression against Ukraine – which continues – the memory of the Holocaust remains a timeless warning that we must not ignore. Hatred, prejudice, racism, extremism and indifference, delusion and lust for power continue and constantly challenge conscientious people
– he said.
The Italian leader stressed that “giving in to manifestations of intolerance and violence, undermining fundamental rights and freedoms that are the basis of our peaceful coexistence, is something we must not allow.” According to him, “Anyone who attacks the international order on the basis of this fundamental principle must realize that free people are and will be united.”
Mattarella also addressed the protesters:
Dear survivors, dear young people, today is Holocaust Remembrance Day. To remember is part of our duty – we must say never again! Against all intentions of oblivion, memory will prevail.
Grandfather of the Israeli Minister of Education
Israel’s Education Minister, Yo’aw Kish, paid tribute to the Jews who fought against the Nazis. He said that one of the heroes was his grandfather.
During the Second World War he was Chief Engineer Officer of General Montgomery’s British Eighth Army. My grandfather was a brigadier general, a Jew. (…) He took part in the Battle of El Alamein, which was a turning point in the North African campaign. The Nazis who wanted to take over Africa were stopped. My grandfather fought near Tripoli and liberated a camp where the Germans and Italians had gathered the Jews to exterminate them. He freed the Jews imprisoned there and presented himself as a “Jewish soldier”
– recalled the Israeli Minister of Education.
He added that his grandfather died in Wadi Akarit.
Two mines exploded, ending his life. He was buried in a British military cemetery in Tunisia, near where he died. Brigadier Kish fought the Nazis, for his life and for the Jewish people; I am here to represent the government of Israel
he said.
The head of the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem, Dani Dayan, addressed non-Jewish attendees at the ceremony. He emphasized that “their friendship is very deep”. He was referring to the biblical story of Pharaoh’s daughter who saved Moses.
She was not Jewish; she was the daughter of a terrorist who said all Jewish boys should be thrown into the Nile. And she saved the boy and brought him up in her father’s palace. She showed how non-Jews can understand what humanity is, what humanity is, what it is to live together and give life to others. This is a lesson. We must remember
Dayan emphasized.
During the main ceremony, seven torches were lit, commemorating, among other things, the six million Jews who died in the Holocaust and the State of Israel. Participants said Kaddish and the El male rachamim prayer. They also sang the Israeli national anthem.
The March of the Living is an educational project under the auspices of which Jews from different countries, mainly schoolchildren and students, visit the Holocaust sites built by the Germans during the war in the occupied Polish territories. They also learn about the history of Jews in Poland, meet their peers and Polish righteous among the nations of the world.
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mly/PAP
Source: wPolityce