5:00AM LA | 8:00AM NY | 2:00PM Poland | 3:00PM Israel
Experience the March of the Living, as thousands of participants from around the world march down the three-kilometer path leading from Auschwitz to Birkenau on Holocaust Remembrance Day – Yom Hashoah – as a tribute to all victims of the Holocaust.
The theme of this year’s March, “Honoring Jewish Heroism in the Holocaust,” marks the 80th anniversary of the heroic Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The uprising lasted four weeks and has become a symbol of Jewish courage and heroism during the Holocaust.
“This is a special year that marks several significant events – the 80th Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the 75th Anniversary of the State of Israel and the 35th Anniversary of the March of the Living, noted President of the International March of the Living, Phyllis Greenberg Heideman, and its Chair Dr. Shmuel Rosenman. “This year, we will shine a light on Jewish heroism during the Holocaust. For years, Jews have been presented as victims who went ‘like lambs to the slaughter.’ Young people in Israel and throughout the Jewish world are not familiar with the countless acts of courage by thousands of Jews during the Holocaust; as an international educational organization, it is our duty to share these stories and to shine a light on the acts of these brave heroes.”
This year, The March will be led by 40 Holocaust survivors from countries around the world. Among those joining them will be the United States Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides; former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman; Jewish-American businessman Robert Kraft; philanthropist Miriam Adelson; Mark Wilf, Chair of the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel; Doron Almog, Chair of the Jewish Agency for Israel; Ifat Ovadia Luski, Chair of KKL-JNF; Iris and Haim Taib, third-generation of Holocaust survivors of Auschwitz and Tunisia; Philanthropists Eitan Neishlos and Mati Kochavi who recently made major contributions to restoring the shoes of the children murdered in Auschwitz – Birkenau as part of March of the Living “Soul to Sole” campaign, Pastor Lawrence Allen Huch; Israeli Minister of Education Yoav Kisch; Miller Center’s Police commissioners delegation from Europe and the United States; and thousands of students and adults representing a diverse cross-section of the world’s population. Sergio Matarella, President of the Italian Republic, will participate in the ceremony in Birkenau. “It will be their voice who will carry the memory of the past into the future,” said both President Heideman and Chair Rosenman.