Thousands expected at March of the Living
PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk
06.04.2016 17:30
Some 8,500 people, mostly young Jews from over 40 countries and their Polish peers, are to take part in the annual March of the Living in southern Poland on 5 May.
Foto: Flickr.com/Adam Tas
They will take a three-kilometre-long route from the brick barracks of the former Nazi German concentration camp of Auschwitz to the crematoria of Birkenau.
The March of the Living was launched in 1988 and is primarily an educational project coinciding with Holocaust Memorial Day (Yom-ha Shoah), which this year takes place on 5 May.
In 2005, the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, the event attracted 20,000 people and official delegations from almost 50 countries. This year the March of the Living will be held for the 25th time.
Over 1.1 million people perished at Auschwitz-Birkenau during World War II, mostly European Jews, but also Poles, Roma and Soviet POWs. (mk/pk)