Cyclist to trace ‘Never Again’ across Poland in 1,000km Holocaust remembrance ride

A Czech endurance cyclist is setting off today at 3pm local time on a 1,000-kilometre ride across Poland to mark Holocaust Memorial Day, tracing the words “Never Again” across the route map in a powerful act of remembrance.

Lukáš Klement is beginning the journey at the former Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp departing from the site’s Gate of Death beneath the Nazi slogan Arbeit macht frei – “Work makes one free”.

The route, which spans southern Poland, has been deliberately designed so that the completed trail spells out “Never Again”, a phrase first adopted by Holocaust survivors and now widely recognised as a warning against antisemitism, fascism and genocide.

The ride is being carried out in cooperation with Israel’s ZAKA Search and Rescue organisation and is expected to take around 50 hours to complete. Members of the public have been invited to accompany Klement for the opening kilometre as the ride gets underway.

Explaining his motivation, Klement said: “After the attack in Sydney and just before Holocaust Remembrance Day, this is my answer to the terrorists: a cross-border, cross-cultural project that connects people regardless of race, gender, or religion.”

International Holocaust Remembrance Day is observed each year on 27 January, marking the liberation of Auschwitz by the Red Army in 1945.

For Jewish communities, the phrase “Never Again” carries particular historical weight. First used by liberated prisoners at the Buchenwald concentration camp, it has since become central to Holocaust remembrance and the ongoing fight against antisemitism.