President Isaac Herzog to Lead 2025 March of the Living at Auschwitz With Those Freed From Hamas Captivity

By: Fern Sidman

In a historic and emotionally resonant commemoration, Israeli President Isaac Herzog will travel to Poland on Thursday to lead the 2025 March of the Living at the former Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, The Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) reported on Wednesday. This year’s march holds profound significance as it marks 80 years since the liberation of the Nazi death camps and the end of World War II.

The March of the Living, which takes place annually on Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah), brings together Holocaust survivors, youth delegations, and dignitaries from around the world to walk the three-kilometer route from Auschwitz to Birkenau, as was noted in the JNS report. But the 2025 edition is uniquely poignant, drawing a parallel between past atrocities and the ongoing trauma of modern terrorism, particularly the devastating impact of the October 7 Hamas massacre in Israel.

This year’s delegation will include 80 Holocaust survivors, aged 80 to 97, many of whom endured the horrors of Auschwitz, Treblinka, and other death camps, or survived in hiding during the Holocaust. In a powerful symbolic gesture, these survivors will be joined by 10 Israelis who were recently freed from Hamas captivity in Gaza, illustrating a chilling continuity of Jewish suffering and resilience across generations.

As the JNS report indicated, the freed hostages participating in the march include 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 accompanied by relatives of hostages still held in Gaza, bereaved families of the October 7 attack, and descendants of Holocaust survivors, some of whom are now grandparents of current hostages. JNS reported that among them are the parents of Omer Shem-Tov, the parents of Hanan Yablonka and Ofir Tzarfati, the widow of Ron Binyamin, and relatives of Shani Louk and Tomer Achimas, whose bodies were returned to Israel. Daniel Weiss, whose parents were either murdered or kidnapped from Kibbutz Be’eri, will also take part.

This unique delegation is coordinated by the Hostages and Missing Persons Department in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, according to the report at JNS.

Prior to the march, President Herzog will meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda in Oświęcim, the town adjacent to Auschwitz. The two leaders will discuss bilateral cooperation, the global rise in antisemitism, and joint efforts to secure the release of remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas.

The JNS report said that their itinerary includes a wreath-laying ceremony at the Black Wall in Auschwitz, where thousands were executed by the Nazis, a visit to Block 27, which houses the Israeli Holocaust memorial exhibit curated by Yad Vashem, and meetings with youth delegations from Israel and Poland, emphasizing the importance of Holocaust education and shared memory among younger generations.

The March of the Living will begin at 1:00 p.m. local time, culminating in a central memorial ceremony at Birkenau at 3:30 p.m., during which President Herzog, President Duda, and a selection of Holocaust survivors will deliver addresses.

Among the notable participants are Aliza Wittis-Shomron, who fought in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, one of the most heroic acts of resistance during the Holocaust, Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, survivor of Buchenwald, former chief rabbi of Israel, and chairman of Yad Vashem and Merrill Eisenhower Atwater, great-grandson of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who personally witnessed the liberation of Nazi camps and predicted future denial of the Holocaust.

As JNS reported, security has been significantly increased in light of recent antisemitic demonstrations in Warsaw, though officials stress that there is no known threat to the event itself. Organizers and participants have underscored the unwavering importance of remembrance, especially as the number of living survivors continues to dwindle.

“With fewer eyewitnesses to tell their stories, the burden now falls on all of us to ensure that the truth of the Holocaust — and the lessons it teaches — are never forgotten,” said a senior official with the March of the Living, speaking to JNS.

This year’s March of the Living does more than commemorate history — it starkly reminds the world that Jewish suffering did not end with the liberation of the camps in 1945. By including survivors of both the Holocaust and modern terrorism, this year’s ceremony draws a direct line from the ghettos and gas chambers of Nazi Europe to the tunnels and captivity of Hamas’s terror infrastructure in Gaza.

The entire ceremony will be streamed live for global audiences at:

🔗 https://event.gpolive.co.il/live/landing-pages/president/

As JNS concludes in its report, the presence of Holocaust survivors, recent hostages, and their families walking together through the gates of Auschwitz is a testament to the endurance of the Jewish people, their commitment to memory, and their refusal to allow history to be forgotten — or repeated.