Amid the chimneys that dot the green fields of the Birkenau extermination camp, 5,000 Jewish youths, Holocaust survivors and visiting dignitaries paid tribute Thursday to the victims of the Holocaust.
Held to mark Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Day, the ceremony was the culmination of the weeklong visit to Poland called the “March of the Living.” After Shabbat, the youths will depart for Israel for a week of seminars and sightseeing.
The emotionally charged day began at 2 p.m., when the participants assembled at Auschwitz for a symbolic 2-mile march to Birkenau.
The groups, representing 42 countries, assembled just inside the entrance to Auschwitz. Each delegation marched behind banners bearing the name of their home country.
At 2:30 the participants, arms locked in unity, retraced the steps that hundreds of thousands of Jews were forced to take on their way to the gas chambers.
The march began with the sounding of the shofar. Along the way, local people could be seen pressing their faces against their windowpanes. In all, only a few hundred townspeople watched.
But if only a handful of Poles saw the procession in person, virtually all had the opportunity to watch it on television or read about it in the paper. At least two dozen Polish journalists and 120 foreign correspondents covered the event.
After the marchers entered the barbed-wire fence surrounding Birkenau, several teens read out the names of loved ones who had died in the Holocaust. Holocaust survivors, Jewish community leaders and members of the Knesset lit the six memorial torches.
‘CAME HERE TO SEE WHAT HAPPENED’
Tel Aviv Chief Rabbi Israel Lau, a Holocaust survivor, told the group, “Our enemies cannot threaten us, because we are not afraid anymore.”
While he praised Polish President Lech Walesa’s recent statements condemning anti-Semitism, Lau was critical of the Catholic Church’s refusal to acknowledge any responsibility for its role in the Holocaust.
“We haven’t heard from the church, but we are patient. Perhaps we will forgive them, because we are a forgiving people. But we are still waiting,” Lau said.
After the ceremony, young and old “planted” small wooden signs that they had inscribed with the names of family members who had died.
Kneeling on the damp ground next to the railroad track that brought so many to their deaths, individuals hammered in the signs and lit yahrzeit candles.
One was inscribed, “To the child who never saw another butterfly,” while another read, “In memory of the 6 million who died at the hands of the Nazis. Your lives were not in vain.”
Despite the very difficult visit to concentration camps and the Warsaw Ghetto, the youths all said they were glad they had come to Poland.
“I came here to see what happened for myself. Pictures and books just weren’t enough,” said Yael Levine of Voorhees, N.J.
But most teens were ready to leave.
“I’ve seen what I wanted to see,” said Avi Ciglen of Toronto. Now, he added, “I can’t wait to get to Israel.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.