On April 14th, 1996, nearly six thousand Jewish teens from all corners of
the globe will embark on a journey of epic proportions. Over the next two
weeks we will travel Poland and Israel. Caught up in a whirlwind of sights
and a rollercoaster of emotions, we will attempt the impossible...we will
try to understand the inexplicable. One thing is for certain-- we will never
forget!
The March of the Living is a bi-annual program begun in 1988. Running two
weeks, the program marks two unforgettable events in the modern Jewish calendar.
Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance day) and Yom HaZikaron (Israeli independence
day).
We will tour Polish villages and visit the death camps where so many of
our families perished. We will witness firsthand the atrocities that man
can commit, and we will commit ourselves to the task of
never allowing them to be repeated. On Yom HaShoah, we will march the same
route that tens of thousands marched 50-odd years ago. The march that led
from Auschwitz towards Birkenau and certain death.
We will march, silent, in rows six-wide. We will march in their memory.
A sea of blue jackets determined to make right what was once twisted terribly
wrong. Ours will not be a death march, but a true march of the living; an
affirmation of a will to surive, to surmount the impossible in an attempt
to keep alive the memory of those innocent lives that are no more.
In Israel, the following week, we will become filled with hope. Israel --
an entire country in full bloom. Lasting proof that oppression can be overcome.
Lasting proof that a nation that almost wasn't...can be once again. The
perfect balance to the world of shame we will have left behind in Poland.
From the ashes that we leave behind, we will encounter renewed life born
from unrelenting seeds of hope.
And then all too soon/not soon enough, it will be over. And almost 6000
youth will be inextricably and irrevocably changed. A piece of us will remain
in Poland, and a piece of them will remain with us. For life. Forever.
And when we come back, we will have stories to tell. 6,000,000 stories to
tell. We will never forget them... whispered to us in our dreams. Floating
on the wind. Stories of a generation lost. And we will own them. We will
become them. We will have our own stories. We will tell OUR stories to our
children...and they too will remember.
This is the March of the Living!