An annual remembrance of the Holocaust at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps was protested on Monday by Palestine flag-flying activists, who confronted and shouted at attendees.
Thousands of people attended the 36th ‘March of the Living’ event on Monday, a normally silent march from Auschwitz to Birkenau, the German death camps built in occupied Poland during the Second World War, key sites of the Holocaust. Among those at Auschwitz yesterday, Germany’s Die Welt broadsheet newspaper reports, were 55 survivors of the Holocaust, survivors of the October 7th Israel massacre, and relatives of those taken hostage by Hamas.
The march was protested by Palestine activists, with slogans shouted and some marchers confronted. Organisers of the march say the counter protesters saw the event as a ‘perverse’ opportunity to “express their hatred against Israel and the Jewish people”. This serves as a “timely reminder of the importance of Holocaust eduction and remembrance”, they said.
OSWIECIM, POLAND – 2024/05/06: Pro-Palestine activists stage protest during the March of the Living 2024. (Photo by Dominika Zarzycka/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
OSWIECIM, POLAND – 2024/05/06: Youth leads the March of the Living 2024 at Auschwitz Camp gate. (Photo by Dominika Zarzycka/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Pro-Palestine protestors demonstrate during the 36th anniversary of ‘International March of the Living’ marching from the former Nazi-German Auschwitz Birkenau concentration and extermination camp in Oswiecim, Poland on May 6th, 2024. (Photo by Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
An organiser of the counter-protest cited by the Associated Press, Omar Faris, is quoted to have said: “Through this protest we want to say that we bow down to the victims of the Holocaust too… At the same time, we demand an end to war, an end to genocide.”
The Times of Israel reports the counter-protest, loud as it may have been, was dwarfed by the official event, with nine activists shouting at an estimated 8,000 attendees. It reports the protesters accused Israel of causing “another genocide”, shouting: “Are you not ashamed of what your government is doing?”.
Pro-Palestine protestors demonstrate during the 36th anniversary of ‘International March of the Living’ marching from the former Nazi-German Auschwitz Birkenau concentration and extermination camp in Oswiecim, Poland on May 6th, 2024.(Photo by Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
OSWIECIM, POLAND – MAY 06: A group of March of the Living participants recite the afternoon prayers (R) next to people sitting on the train tracks after entering Birkenau and marching from Auschwitz during the 26th annual March of the Living on May 6, 2024, in Oswiecim, Poland. 55 Holocaust survivors from around the world, including Holocaust survivors who were victims of the October 7th attack on Israel led this year’s International March of the Living which takes place on Yom HaShoah. Approximately 8,000 thousand people from marched the three kilometres between the prisoner of war camps, Auschwitz to Birkenau in memory of the holocaust victims of World War II. This year’s march also included a delegation of released hostages, family of hostages, as well as relatives of people killed on and since the start of October 7th. (Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)
OSWIECIM, POLAND – MAY 6, 2024: A small group of Pro Palestinian protestors demonstrate at the 36th annual ‘March of the Living’ between Auschwitz and Birkenau on May 6, 2024, in Oswiecim, Poland. (Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld Getty Images)
(Photo by Omar Marques/Getty Images)
(Photo by Dominika Zarzycka/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
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