March of the Living to be attended by Polish, Israeli heads of state
The presidents of Poland and Israel will take part, along with a group of 80 Holocaust survivors from around the world, in the annual March of the Living at the site of the former Nazi German death camp Auschwitz in southern Poland on April 24.
Andrzej Duda and Isaac Herzog will hold a bilateral meeting earlier on April 24, the Polish President's Office announced on Friday.
This year's march coincides with the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Nazi death camps, including Auschwitz. Its main message is to commemorate the victims and oppose the growing wave of antisemitism worldwide.
According to the International March of the Living, the organiser of the commemoration, this year's march will also be attended by the Israeli First Lady, Michal Herzog, Merril Eisenhower, the grandson of Dwight Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Force in Europe during World War Two, and Israel Chief Rabbi Meir Lau.
The march's traditional three-kilometre route leads from the former Nazi German death camp Auschwitz's infamous 'Arbeit macht frei' (Work Sets You Free) gate to the crematoria of the nearby Birkenau site.
A special memorial site between the ruins of Birkenau's two biggest gas chambers will be the location of the day's main observances.
The first March of the Living took place in 1988. In the following years it was held biannually, and from 1996 once a year. The most numerous event drew 20,000 participants from almost 50 countries. Attending the marches in the past have been Polish and Israeli presidents and prime ministers and representatives of various religions.
The Germans established the Auschwitz camp in 1940, initially for the imprisonment of Poles. Auschwitz II-Birkenau was established two years later. It became the site for the mass extermination of Jews. There was also a network of sub-camps in the complex. The Germans killed at least 1.1 million people at Auschwitz, including about 960,000 people of Jewish descent.
The camp was liberated by the Red Army on January 27, 1945. In 1947, the camp site was declared a national memorial site. (PAP)
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