Warsaw, Poland – About 7,000 Jews marched Monday to the former German Nazi death camp of Auschwitz in memory of the 6 million Holocaust victims.
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Participants in the 20th annual March of the Living were carrying Israeli flags. They started from the former camp’s gate with the infamous “Arbeit Macht Frei” (“Work Sets You Free”) sign.
The crowd walked about 3 kilometres (2 miles) from the red brick buildings of Auschwitz I to the wooden barracks and gas chambers of Birkenau, or Auschwitz II, where a memorial ceremony was held at a monument to the camp’s victims.
The march, which is traditionally held on Holocaust Memorial Day, also included some Holocaust survivors.
Between 1942-1945, Jews from across Europe were brought to Birkenau by rail and killed in its gas chambers. At least 1.1 million people — mostly Jews, Poles and Gypsies — died that way or from starvation, disease and forced labour at the camp that German Nazis built in occupied Poland during World War II.
The Auschwitz camp was liberated Jan. 27, 1945 by Soviet troops.
We will never forget – we must make sure to educate the next generation and continue the March of the Living for generations to come.