This month’s ‘March of the Living’ will likely be the last to include Holocaust survivors
Only eight survivors set to be among 2,000 participants at event in Poland following two-year hiatus due to pandemic.
This month’s ‘March of the Living’ in Poland will “likely be the last to include Holocaust survivors”, say organisers, with only eight due to join the trip.
It comes as pictures emerged this week of Russian war crimes in Ukraine, including mass graves, the rape of women in front of their children, and the shooting of civilians whose hands had been tied behind their back, all providing eery echoes of events last seen on the continent during the Second World War.
“More than ever, it is clear that words like ‘never again’ are not enough,” said 91-year-old Holocaust survivor Eve Kugler. “How much worse will it be when [Holocaust] survivors are no more than a distant memory?”
Scott Saunders, chair of March of the Living (MOTL) in the UK, said world events meant that “the need to educate about where hatred and antisemitism can lead has never been greater”. He added that this year would be about “passing the torch of memory so that future generations can take the lessons”.
“the need to educate about where hatred and antisemitism can lead has never been greater
This year’s March, taking place on Yom HaShoah at the end of April, will focus on “the importance of passing the responsibility of Holocaust remembrance and education to… the grandchildren” of those who lived through the war.
Eitan Neishlos is the grandson of Holocaust survivor Tamar Zisserman, who survived the death pits of Latvia thanks to a Christian family subsequently recognised as ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ by Israel’s Yad Vashem.
“From now on, we will preserve their memory and demand of ourselves that never means never,” said Neishlos, who is from Australia and plans to attend this year’s March. “This duty is not a burden. It is a privilege.”
It follows a special event held last week at the House of Lords, where conversation turned quickly to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the humanitarian consequences. Poland has taken in more than two million Ukrainian refugees.
International MOTL chair Shmuel Rosenman said this year’s March “will not remain indifferent to the difficult news coming from Ukraine and will find its expression in the framework of the events”.
More than 2,000 participants, both Jewish and non-Jewish, are expected to join the March this year, mainly from Europe but some from Israel, where Keren Kayemet L’Yisrael (KKL) and the Jewish Agency are both sending delegations.
The March will conclude with the traditional ceremony at the remains of the Auschwitz-Birkenau crematorium, attended by former Israeli Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, IDF Cantor Shai Abramson, Holocaust survivors, and Israeli singer Harel Skaat.
Last week Nieshlos joined Kugler at an unusual Jerusalem Post (JPost) panel event which featured a third-generation survivor, a third-generation granddaughter of Nazi SS officers, and the son of Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara, who was named ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ by Yad Vashem.
Addressing the conference, which was hosted at the Tottenham Hotspurs Football Club stadium, she said: “It didn’t start with six million dead. It started with words. It started with my father’s business being boycotted.”
Recalling her family’s persecution in Germany as the Nazi Party rose to power, she added: “When you don’t confront evil, evil finds a way of pushing the boundaries beyond where anyone thought possible… It is clear to many of us today that words like ‘never again’ are not enough.”
“When you don’t confront evil, evil finds a way of pushing the boundaries beyond where anyone thought possible… It is clear to many of us today that words like ‘never again’ are not enough.
Nieshlos, whose foundation co-sponsored the event, promised Kugler that “we will learn, we will be curious, we will continue the message… On behalf of the third generation, we will take this flame of remembrance, pass it down, and carry it on”.
He added that it was “remarkable that we have a Holocaust survivor, a descendant of a Holocaust survivor, a descendant of a Nazi, and a descendant of a Righteous Among the Nations, and I applaud everyone here for their courage”.
Nieshlos recalled how his grandmother, aged 11, when living in Belarus, was told to stay in bed one day – that day, all her family were killed. She was saved by a Christian family, who hid her in a chimney.
“She lived amongst the dust and insects. The Nazis would knock at the door, she would be lose her ability to speak for many months due to the trauma.” The Christian family were later killed for their role in the resistance, he said, but his grandmother survived, after working in a labour camp.
“Others helped her, too, and they were also killed, so my grandmother lived a very guilty existence, because so many people died so she could live. When I found that out, I decided that I had to take from her learnings and relate that.”
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