The 2007 March of the Living in the News:

'Jewish, Polish youth try to nix stereotypes before Holocaust remembrance march' (CBC News: April 13, 2007)

Poland Seeks to End Stereotypes at March’ (April 13, 2007)

Thousands of Jews remember Holocaust, celebrate Israel at march at Auschwitz

By VANESSA GERA
Associated Press Writer

OSWIECIM, Poland (AP) -- The Jewish prayer for the dead echoed across the wooden barracks and barbed wire fences of the former Auschwitz death camp complex on Monday, as thousands of Jews gathered to mourn the victims of the Holocaust and celebrate the existence of Israel.

About 8,000 people from across the world -- including aging Holocaust survivors and teenagers -- took part in the annual March of the Living, a three-kilometer (two-mile) trek from Auschwitz to the sprawling death camp of Birkenau, where the main gas chambers were located.

The marchers, many draped in blue-and-white Israeli flags, walked along the railroad tracks that brought Jews from throughout Europe to their deaths, placing flowers or small wooden slabs bearing messages of mourning between the tracks. One read "Never again, the world needs peace," while another bore the message "We have survived."

At least 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, but also Poles, Gypsies and others, died in the Nazi camp's gas chambers or from starvation, disease and forced labor before Soviet troops liberated it on Jan. 27, 1945.

The march, timed to coincide with Holocaust Remembrance Day, brings together mostly Jewish teenagers from around the world to remember the 6 million victims of the Holocaust and to instill a commitment to tolerance and devotion to the state of Israel.

"We are very proud to come here to say 'never again,' and we feel that we have power now because of Israel and the Israeli Defense Force," said Motti Barbagan, a 68-year-old retired brigadier general who fought in several of Israel's wars with its neighbors, including the 1973 Yom Kippur war.

"We came here to demonstrate our power."

A shofar, or ram's horn, sounded the event's start, and the column of marchers walked through Auschwitz's wrought-iron gates, which read "Arbeit Macht Frei," or "Work Sets You Free," on the path to Birkenau.

The march ended in a ceremony with the Kaddish, or Jewish prayer for the dead, at the monument to the camp's victims between the red-brick ruins of Birkenau's crematoria.

"We are all very proud to walk with our flags," said Zohar Cohen, a 16-year-old from Ashkelon, Israel, among a group of young Israelis waving a large Israeli flag. "Especially in this place in Poland, where the Germans tried to exterminate all Jews."

Speaking at the so-called "Wall of Death", where the Nazis shot thousands, Cohen said she always longed to fight for her country, and was certain the visit to Auschwitz would only strengthen her resolve.

"I don't want to be a secretary," said Cohen, who enters the army in 18 months. "I want to fight."

Hank Brodt, an 82-year-old who survived five different Nazi concentration camps, attended the march for the second consecutive year to pass on his experiences from the Holocaust to the younger generation.

"I'm trying to teach them what happened and educate them," said Brodt, a retired carpenter who now lives in Greensboro, North Carolina.

"They're the ones who have to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive and prevent it from happening again."