Thousands join annual ‘March of the Living’ at Auschwitz

Every year, thousands of Jews, young and old, gather at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp site in Poland to commemorate the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis.

By: AP and World Israel News Staff

As Israel observes its annual Holocaust Remembrance Day, thousands of people, many of them young Israelis with an Israeli flag wrapped around their shoulders, are taking part in the March of the Living, a yearly three-kilometer (two-mile) march at the Auschwitz death camp in Poland to remember those killed in the Holocaust.

The march, taking place on Israel’s annual Holocaust memorial day, is a symbolic walk between the main camp of Auschwitz and Birkenau, the vast site where Jews, Gypsies and others were gassed to death.

Organizers say that the march takes on added significance due to the growth of anti-Semitism in Europe, causing them to question whether the lessons of World War II have really been learned.