March of the Living
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The March of the Living, also called The March of Remembrance and Hope, is an educational program which brings students from all over the world to Poland, where they explore the remnants of the Holocaust. On Holocaust Memorial Day (Yom Hashoah), Participants march silently from Auschwitz to Birkenau, the largest concentration camp complex built during World War II. Marchers come from countries as diverse as Panama, Turkey and New Zealand.
The programme was established in the 1990s by the government of Israel and worldwide Jewish organizations and takes place annually in April for two weeks. Its purpose is to teach students of different religious and ethnic backgrounds about the dangers of intolerance through the study of the Holocaust, and to promote better relations among people of diverse cultures.
At the climax of the programme is the march, which is designed to contrast with the death marches which occurred towards the end of World War II. When Nazi Germany withdrew its soldiers from forced-labour camps, inmates—usually already starving and stricken by oppressive work—were forced to march dozens of miles in the snow, while those who lagged behind or fell were shot. This irony of the living walking the path of a death march serves to illustrate the continued existence of world Jewry despite Nazi attempts at their obliteration.
After spending a week in Poland visiting other sites of Nazi persecution and former sites of Jewish life and culture, many of the participants in the March of the Living also travel on to Israel where they observe Yom Hazikaron (Israel's Remembrance Day) and celebrate Yom Haatzmaut (Israel's Independence Day).
The March of the Living is mainly aimed at Jewish high school students and its goals are both universal (to make them better human beings, to fight racism and injustice etc.) and particular (to fight anti-semitism, to strengthen their Jewish identity and connection to Israel).
The vast majority of participants in the March of the Living are Jewish high school students from around the world (including Israel), although there are adult groups, along with other non-Jewish groups that some times also participate, such as the Polish Friends of Israel.
