12:59 May. 5, 2016
Marchers commemorate the innocent victims of war that were killed in Auschwitz
Nearly 8,000 young Jews from many countries and their Polish peers are set to participate in the March of the Living taking place on Thursday, May 5th at the site of the former Nazi German concentration camp of Auschwitz.
The 3-km-route leading from the "Arbeit Macht frei" gate to Auschwitz to the crematoria of Birkenau is about to begin at 2 pm local time. Before the start, the participants toured the site, where Nazis regularly executed thousands of camp prisoners.
Launched in 1988 as an educational project, the March of the Living is going to be held for the 25th time.
It coincides with the 80th anniversary since the Reichstag adopted anti-Semitic Nuremberg Laws, as well as with the 70th anniversary of Nuremberg Trials over Nazi war criminals.
The Auschwitz concentration camp was founded in 1940. Its first victim was a Polish Jew, Dawid Wongczewski, who died there on July 6th the same year. During the period of its existence, Auschwitz became a death trap for more than a million people, mostly European Jews, Poles, Roma, and Soviet prisoners of war.