On April 24.4.2025, 12.000, the annual March of the Living took place, with the participation of approximately 7 people from all over the world. Among them were Holocaust survivors, released Israeli hostages from Gaza, and relatives of hostages and victims of the Hamas attack on October 2023, XNUMX. The march began at Auschwitz and ended at the Birkenau camp, honoring the memory of the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Polish President Andrzej Duda, in their opening speeches, called for the return of the 59 hostages remaining in Gaza and stressed the importance of international unity in the fight against terrorism. Particularly moving were the testimonies of released hostages, Eli Sarabi and Keith Siegel, who connected the message of the power of Holocaust survival to the current battle for the return of the kidnapped.
The event closed with musical performances, featuring released hostage Agam Berger and Beersheba massacre survivor Daniel Weiss.
A day earlier, Holocaust survivors and freed Israeli hostages had toured the grounds of the former extermination camp and, in a moving initiative, sang Atikva, Israel's national anthem, inside a gas chamber.
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