Thousands gather in Poland for annual 'March of the Living' to remember Holocaust victims

Published connected 14/04/2026 - 20:29 GMT+2•Updated 20:49

Holocaust survivors from astir the satellite joined thousands of radical successful the March of the Living connected Tuesday, an yearly lawsuit held astatine the tract of the Auschwitz attraction campy successful Poland successful representation of the 6 cardinal Jews killed by Nazi Germany during World War II.

Of the 50 survivors taking part, immoderate had travelled from Israel, organisers said, contempt logistical difficulties caused by airspace restrictions associated with the Iran war.

Revital Yakin Krakovsky, lawman main enforcement of the International March of the Living organisation, warned that antisemitism is live contiguous contempt the lessons of the Holocaust.

"Since 7 October, antisemitism has surged and is spreading everywhere," she said. "The standard and normalisation of this hatred echoes the acheronian times we person seen earlier and, contiguous of each days, we cognize however it ended."

The march successful Poland took spot connected what is Holocaust Remembrance Day successful the Jewish calendar.

It began astatine Auschwitz and ended 3 kilometres distant astatine Birkenau, wherever Jews from crossed Europe were transported by bid and murdered successful state chambers.

Among the guests were survivors of caller antisemitic attacks, including the wide shooting successful December successful which 15 radical were killed during a Hanukkah solemnisation astatine Sydney’s Bondi Beach.

Hannah Abesidon, the girl of 78-year-old Holocaust subsister Tibor Weitzen, 1 of the 15 radical killed successful the Bondi Beach massacre, recounted her acquisition of the onslaught successful which her begetter was killed.

"My begetter didn’t marque it due to the fact that helium was a Jew," Abesidon said. "It starts with the Jews but it doesn’t extremity with the Jews."

The yearly march, present successful its 38th year, usually draws thousands of participants, including Holocaust survivors and Jewish students, leaders and politicians.

Tributes successful Israel

Israel came to a standstill connected Tuesday arsenic sirens sounded crossed the state successful tribute to the 6 cardinal Jews murdered successful the Holocaust.

At 10:00 americium section clip (0800 CET), Israel observed a two-minute silence, with postulation coming to a halt and the bushed of mundane beingness suspended successful a symbolic enactment of remembrance for those who perished.

The commemoration, held each twelvemonth successful April oregon May successful accordance with the Hebrew calendar, is abstracted from International Holocaust Remembrance Day which is marked connected 27 January.

This year's commemoration comes amid a fragile two-week ceasefire with Iran aft a warfare that began connected 28 February, erstwhile a associated US-Israeli aerial onslaught killed Iran's ultimate person Ali Khamenei.

Video editor • Amandine Hess

Additional sources • AP