The March of the Living, also called the March of Remembrance and Hope, is an educational programme that brings students from all over the world to Poland, where they explore the remnants of the Holocaust.
The March of the Living, also called the March of Remembrance and Hope, is an educational programme that brings students from all over the world to Poland, where they explore the remnants of the Holocaust.
On Holocaust Memorial Day participants march silently from Auschwitz to Birkenau, the largest concentration camp complex built during the Second World War.
The programme was established in 1988 by the government of Israel and worldwide Jewish organisations and takes place in April for two weeks.
Its purpose is to teach students of various religious and ethnic backgrounds about the dangers of intolerance through the study of the Holocaust, and to promote better relations among people of diverse cultures.
At the climax of the programme is the march, which is designed to contrast with the death marches that occurred towards the end of the second world war. When Nazi Germany withdrew its soldiers from forced-labour camps, inmates - usually already starving and stricken by oppressive work - were forced to march dozens of miles in the snow.
Those who lagged behind or fell were shot.
This irony of the living walking the path of a death march serves to illustrate the continued existence of world Jewry despite Nazi attempts at its obliteration. - Wikipedia