The gates of Auschwitz, with the inscription "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work sets you free)
OSWIECIM, Poland (DPA) -- Thousands of Jewish teenagers from around the globe completed the solemn 3-kilometre "March of the Living" Tuesday between the notorious Auschwitz and Birkenau Nazi death camps, which claimed up to 1.5 million lives.
Children subjected to medical experiments in Auschwitz
The mournful wail of a shofar, or Jewish ceremonial ram's horn, sounded the beginning of the march, which coincided with Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day, honouring the 6 million Jews who fell victim to Nazi genocide during WWII.
Close to 1,000 Polish youths joined some 6,000-7,000 Jewish teens in the procession, formally the 15th March of the Living.
Former Israeli prime minister and 1994 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shimon Perez headed the march, which began with all participants, including Holocaust survivors, passing through the infamous black iron "Arbeit macht frei" gate at Auschwitz.
...Up to 1.5 million people, mostly European Jews, perished at the twin camps between 1940 and 1945. They were built by Nazi Germany in the occupied Polish towns of Oswiecim-Brzezinka. Poles, Roma and Soviet prisoners of war were among its other victims.
A pile of the victims glasses at Auschwitz
Many participants marched Tuesday wrapped in blue-and-white Israeli flags emblazoned with the six-pointed Star of David, others touted flags from their home countries including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Hungary, Poland and the United States.
The march culminated with Jewish Kaddish prayers for the dead, speeches and special music near crematoria ruins inside the former Birkenau camp. The event went ahead under heavy security.
Sorting the shoes of victims in Auschwitz
...German-born Pope Benedict XVI plans to honour Holocaust and WWII victims at the camp on May 28 during a visit to Poland scheduled for May 25-28.
Sirens wailed across Israel Tuesday morning as the country came to a standstill to commemorate the victims of the Nazi genocide directed against the Jews.
The furnaces of Krema II in Auschwitz
Israel's Holocaust Memorial Day began Monday night with a ceremony at Jerusalem's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Centre when six Holocaust survivors lit beacons honouring the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust.
In 2005, the United Nations designated January 27, the day the Auschwitz death camp was liberated in 1945, as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Israel, however, has traditionally marked it on the 27th day of the Jewish month of Nissan, one week before Independence Day, to symbolize the birth of the Jewish state from the ashes of the Holocaust.
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"Some 60 years have passed since the end of World War II. Why should the people of Germany and Palestine pay now for a war in which the current generation was not involved?"
"We say that this fake regime (Israel) cannot not logically continue to live."
--MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, Iranian president
2 comments:
So much for "Never again."
The world is full of spineless politicians, and no statesmen are to be found.
The Iranians are "reclaiming the Rhineland", and it won't be long before they "march on Poland."
It's a disgrace and it's happening right in front of our eyes.......They are so brazen they are doing exactly as they say, which is exactly what Hitler did as well.
Both knew/know the West has no stomach for handling the problem before it becomes a REAL PROBLEM.......As a result, I have no doubt we will have to face a REAL PROBLEM soon enough.
It's so obvious that Iran is a REAL PROBLEM in the making, and yet Bush is Hitler according to the Left.
That rhetoric really, really disgusts me because it diminishes the horror of the Holocaust and World War II.
Every day Ahmadinejad makes promises to get rid of Israel and defy the global community.
And what gets the media's attention?
Strippers, college lacrosse players, and Bush's low approval ratings.
I really don't think people understand the threat that Iran poses.
As you said, "So much for 'Never again.'"
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