KRAKOW, Poland — The first-ever delegation of U.S. ambassadors to the March of the Living, an annual Holocaust commemoration in Poland, received a warm welcome from participants at an opening ceremony Wednesday evening.
The Trump administration sent a sizable delegation, led by U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, who was joined by: U.S. Ambassador to Poland Georgette Mosbacher; U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell; U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Callista Gingrich; U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland and Lichtenstein Ed McMullen; U.S. Ambassador to Spain Duke Buchan; Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Antisemitism Elan Carr; and Chairman of the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad Paul Packer.
Carr had just arrived from San Diego, where he delivered a stirring eulogy at the funeral of Lori Gilbert Kaye, the woman who sacrificed her life to save her rabbi during the synagogue shooting in Poway, California, last Saturday. “We are at war” with antisemitism, Carr declared.
The March of the Living is a procession from the infamous gate (“Arbeit Macht Frei”) of the Auschwitz concentration camp to the entrance of the Birkenau death camp, three kilometers away. The march includes Holocaust survivors and their families, as well as youth groups, civil society organizations, and government officials — usually from Poland and Israel.
While somber, the March of the Living also celebrates the continuity of Jewish life, and the success of the State of Israel, in defiance of those who sought to extinguish the Jewish people during the Second World War, and those who continue to do so.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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