Then-Jewish Agency chairman Isaac Herzog speaks at the annual March of the Living program in Poland on May 2, 2019. Photo courtesy of the Jewish Agency for Israel.

JNS

Israeli President Isaac Herzog will be in Poland on Thursday, April 24, to lead the 2025 March of the Living at the former Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp, marking 80 years since the liberation of the Nazi death camps and the end of World War II.This year’s march, taking place on Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah), will feature 80 survivors aged 80 to 97, including survivors of multiple death camps and children who were hidden during the war. They will be joined by a delegation of 10 Israelis recently freed from Hamas captivity in Gaza, bereaved families, relatives of hostages still held, victims of terrorism, and representatives of Israel’s high-tech sector.

The former hostages participating in the march are Agam Berger, Hagar Brodutch, Chen Goldstein-Almog, Ori Megidish, Almog Meir Jan, Gadi Moses, Raaya Rotem, Eli Sharabi, Keith Siegel and Moran Stella Yanai. They will be joined by family members of those murdered or still held captive, including the parents of Omer Shem-Tov; the parents of Hanan Yablonka and Ofir Tzarfati, both murdered and abducted to Gaza; the widow of Ron Binyamin; relatives of Shani Louk and Tomer Achimas, whose bodies were retrieved; Daniel Weiss of Kibbutz Be’eri, whose parents were killed or taken hostage; and Holocaust survivors who are grandparents of current hostages.

The delegation is being coordinated by the Hostages and Missing Persons Department in the prime minister’s office.

Before the march, Herzog will meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda in Oświęcim to discuss bilateral cooperation, anti-Semitism and ongoing efforts to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas. The two leaders will deliver joint press statements, lay a wreath at the Black Wall in Auschwitz, and tour the permanent Israeli Holocaust exhibit in Block 27. They will also meet with youth delegations from Israel and Poland.

The march will begin at 1 p.m. Poland time, and Herzog will deliver an address during the central memorial ceremony at Birkenau at 3:30 p.m., alongside Duda and the Holocaust survivors. Among the participants will be Aliza Wittis-Shomron, who fought in the Warsaw Ghetto, and Merrill Eisenhower Atwater, great-grandson of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, who will march with survivors liberated by Allied forces, including Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, a former chief rabbi of Israel and chairman of Yad Vashem, who is a survivor of Buchenwald.

Security has been tightened in light of recent anti-Semitic demonstrations in Warsaw, but organizers stress the importance of continuing the tradition of remembrance and unity.

The March of the Living ceremony will be streamed live:
https://event.gpolive.co.il/live/landing-pages/president/