Photos: First-Ever U.S. Government Delegation at Auschwitz for March of the Living

AUSCHWITZ — The first-ever U.S. government delegation to the March of the Living annual Holocaust memorial arrived at Auschwitz on a somber Thursday morning, bringing several ambassadors and envoys in a show of solidarity against antisemitism.

“I couldn’t be more proud of the unprecedented commitment of this administration to fight against antisemitism,” U.S. Special Envoy to Combat and Monitor Antisemitism, Elan Carr, told reporters outside the infamous concentration camp.

“There is no administration, no president, no Secretary of State that have ever committed themselves to this extent to fight against antisemitism, to protect the Jewish people, and to support the State of Israel,” he added.

The delegation included U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, and Ambassador to the Holy See Calista Gingrich, among many other ambassadors.

Gingrich told Breitbart News of the impact the delegation is hoping to make: “lt’s so important that we come here and honor the people who perished, and make sure that it never happens again.”

Thousands of participants, including youth activists from all over the world, joined survivors and diplomats for the three-kilometer walk from the Auschwitz concentration camp to the Birkenau death camp.

Paul Packer, Chairman of the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, told Breitbart News: “To join U.S. ambassadors for the first time ever shows the commitment that the Trump administration has to the words, ‘Never Again,’ and to making sure that all our allies know the words of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, that anti-Zionism equals antisemitism.

“Not only will the U.S. make sure that the Holocaust never happens again, but the U.S. will make sure all our allies know that antisemitism and anti-Zionism will not be accepted, either.”

U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland Ed McMullen told Breitbart News that he felt “truly overwhelmed.

“This is beyond anything that I imagined.”

Edward Mossberg, 93, a Holocaust survivor who lost all of his family in the death camps, and who has participated in the annual march for two decades, told reporters that he was there to honor the dead.

“It is never forgotten, and it is never forgiven. Because you know what? We have no right to forgive.

“Only the dead can forgive.”

“For me, this is just deeply moving and really hard to deal with,” Ambassador Grenell told Breitbart News as he walked through the museum at Auschwitz.

“I can’t stop thinking about the individual faces and the stories, what they were thinking in this moment.”

Hollywood actress Suzanne Somers also marched with the U.S. delegation, and told Breitbart News: “I’m here because I’m concerned about the rise in antisemitism, and I want to say that ‘Never Again’ means ‘Never Again’.”

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.