{"id":120704,"date":"2025-04-25T17:00:17","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T15:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=120704"},"modified":"2025-04-25T08:47:13","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T06:47:13","slug":"25-00-100","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=120704","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The Jewish Spirit\u2019: Holocaust Survivors, Freed Israeli Hostages Gather at Auschwitz for \u2018March of the Living\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>\u2018The Jewish Spirit\u2019: Holocaust Survivors, Freed Israeli Hostages Gather at Auschwitz for \u2018March of the Living\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Debbie Weiss<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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\"\"Holocaust survivors, relatives of Israeli hostages, and survivors of Hamas captivity marched together at Auschwitz for the annual March of the Living on April 24, 2025. Photo: Chen Schimmel<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n

Oswiecim, Poland \u2014\u00a0Holocaust survivors, relatives of Israeli hostages, and survivors of Hamas captivity marched together at Auschwitz, the infamous former Nazi concentration camp in Poland,\u00a0for the first time on Thursday, joining Israeli President Isaac Herzog in the\u00a0annual March of the Living<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The march\u00a0from Auschwitz I to Auschwitz II-Birkenau \u2014 the Nazis\u2019 largest death camp where 1 million Jews were murdered during World War II \u2014\u00a0took place on Israel\u2019s Holocaust Remembrance Day and included 80 Holocaust survivors, many of whom were also death march survivors, to mark 80 years since the liberation of the camps.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

March of the Living president Phyllis Greenberg Heideman addressed the survivors, who were seated next to the gate bearing the notorious inscription, \u201cWork sets you free.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a strange thing to say, but we welcome you to Auschwitz,\u201d she said. \u201cYou are the true heroes. We will treasure your legacy forever.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Almog Meir Jan and his mother Orit. Almog was rescued by the IDF on June 5 during the Arnon Mission. Photo: Chen Schimmel<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n

Standing outside the crematoria and gas chambers at Auschwitz I, recently released hostage Eli Sharabi said, \u201cThe Holocaust was unlike anything else \u2014 we will never forget and never forgive.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut our presence here is the triumph of the Jewish spirit. The Jewish people sanctify life, not death. I endured horrors in enemy captivity, but I chose life. That gives me hope to get up each morning and begin rebuilding,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sharabi, whose wife and daughters were murdered during Hamas\u2019s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, was\u00a0released in February after nearly 500 days<\/a>\u00a0in captivity. His emaciated appearance as he was paraded through Gaza on his release led to comparisons with concentration camp survivors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Pro-Israel influencer Shiraz Shukran broke down after seeing Sharabi. The two embraced for several minutes. \u201cSeeing him in real life, in this place, just made it all suddenly seem very close. This is no longer something that happened 80 years ago; it\u2019s continuing until this day,\u201d Shukran told\u00a0The Algemeiner.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Pro-Israel influencer Shiraz Shukran embracing former hostage Eli Sharabi. Photo: Debbie Weiss \/ The Algemeiner<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n

In remarks to reporters prior to the march, Herzog called the return of the hostages a \u201cuniversal human imperative.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWith a broken heart, I remind us all that although after the Holocaust we vowed, \u2018Never again,\u2019 today, even as we stand here, the souls of dozens of Jews again \u2018yearn within a cage,\u2019 \u2018thirsting for water and for freedom,\u2019 as 59 of our brothers and sisters are held by terrorist murderers in Gaza, in a horrific crime against humanity,\u201d Herzog said, referring to the hostages kidnapped during Hamas\u2019s Oct. 7 invasion who remain in captivity.<\/span><\/p>\n

His Polish counterpart, President Andrzej Duda, said the march was \u201ca dramatic call of \u2018never again.\u2019 No more hatred, no more discrimination, no more antisemitism.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He called for \u201call wars in the Middle East to end,\u201d and for a two-state solution, which he said was the \u201cmost rational solution [to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict] that gives hope for achieving stable and lasting peace.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The two leaders signed the visitors\u2019 book and laid a wreath at Auschwitz\u2019s Black Wall, where the Nazis executed prisoners.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the march\u2019s opening ceremony, the head of the Republican Jewish Coalition, Matt Brooks, lit one of six candles \u2014 representing the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis \u2014 and addressed rising antisemitism in the world.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJews all over the world fear walking streets with a kippah and it\u2019s unacceptable. College students are being attacked verbally and physically,\u201d he told\u00a0The Algemeiner.<\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He praised US President Donald Trump for \u201ccombating this scourge.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a new sheriff in town. It\u2019s my hope the rest of the world can look to him to see how to support and defend the Jewish community against these vile attacks,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Matt Brooks, chief executive officer of the Republican Jewish Coalition, with Malcolm Hoenlein, vice chairman emeritus of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Photo: Debbie Weiss \/ The Algemeiner<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n

In Block 5, where thousands of victims\u2019 eyeglasses are displayed behind glass, Laly Dery told a delegation of Israeli teenagers from the national civil service about her son, Sgt. First Class (res.) Saadia, who fell in battle in Gaza in June.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJust like my son, who served the country with every fiber of his being, you have earned the enormous privilege of serving the state of Israel,\u201d Dery said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Derai\u2019s words resonated with Sara Bisan, the only member of the national service delegation not wearing an Israeli flag. Instead, Bisan wore the distinctive multi-colored flag of the Druze community to which she belongs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI feel her pain, and it hurts,\u201d Bisan said, reflecting on the death of her own friend from the northern Druze village of Kfar Yarka, who was also killed in Gaza.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut our people, the Druze and the Jews, share a lot, including a love of Israel. I also feel that serving the state of Israel is a privilege,\u201d she added.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Sara Bisan. Photo: Debbie Weiss \/ The Algemeiner<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n

Twelve thousand participants marched the 1.7 miles from Auschwitz to Birkenau for the main ceremony, which was cut short this year due to heavy rain.<\/span><\/p>\n

As thunder echoed overhead, released hostage Agam Berger played the theme from \u201cSchindler\u2019s List\u201d on a 150-year-old violin rescued during the Holocaust. Daniel Weiss, a survivor from Kibbutz Be\u2019eri whose father was murdered on Oct. 7 and whose mother was abducted and later killed in Gaza, performed a musical rendition of the psalm\u00a0Shir Lamaalot\u00a0<\/i>alongside her.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Lord will guard you from all evil; He will guard your soul<\/i>,\u201d\u00a0Weiss sang, his voice quavering.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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\u2018The Jewish Spirit\u2019: Holocaust Survivors, Freed Israeli Hostages Gather at Auschwitz for \u2018March of the Living\u2019 Debbie Weiss Holocaust survivors, relatives of Israeli hostages, and survivors of Hamas captivity marched together at Auschwitz for the annual March of the Living on April 24, 2025. Photo: Chen Schimmel Oswiecim, Poland \u2014\u00a0Holocaust survivors, relatives of Israeli hostages, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120704"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=120704"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120735,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120704\/revisions\/120735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=120704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=120704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=120704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}