On Thursday, President Andrzej Duda will take part in Auschwitz–Birkenau in the March of the Living, which is a tribute to and a token of memory of Holocaust victims.
The march traditionally takes place on Holocaust Remembrance Day. This year, it will be celebrated on Wednesday and Thursday. Participants of the march cover the three-kilometer stretch leading from the "Arbeit Macht Frei" gate at the former German Auschwitz I camp to the former Auschwitz II–Birkenau site.
This year's March of the Living is taking place in the shadow of the war in Ukraine.
In 2018, President Andrzej Duda took part in the March of the Living together with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin.
"We are coming together to bear witness to the memory of the extermination of the Jewish people, to say: 'Never again',” said Duda at the time.
The March of the Living project is an international event that includes within its framework Jews from various countries gathering with the intention of paying tribute to the victims of the Holocaust, and visiting the Holocaust sites set up by the Nazis during the war in the occupied Polish territories.
The March leading from the former camp of Auschwitz I to Auschwitz II–Birkenau is the culmination of the project in Poland. This year, the March will take place in Auschwitz and Birkenau after a two–year break caused by the COVID–19 pandemic.