Jewish survivors commemorate Holocaust

OSWIECIM, Poland — Led by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, thousands of Jews from around the world on Thursday remembered the victims of the Holocaust in emotional but defiant ceremonies and a march at the site of the largest Nazi death camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The sun broke through the clouds for the closing ceremony of the March of the Living, a demonstrative walk of two miles from Auschwitz to the twin Birkenau camp. Some 1.5 million people, most of them Jews, were killed at the complex in Nazi-occupied Poland.

The march, in honor of the 6 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust, contained an element of pride and defiance.

In the Nazi death marches of the last days of World War II, German soldiers and their collaborators herded skeletal, tortured, barely alive inmates along wintry roads ahead of advancing Allied forces.

But on Thursday, many marchers carried Israeli flags and wore jackets with Israel's blue-and-white colors, bearing witness to the failure of the Nazi goal of wiping out the Jews of Europe.

Tears flowed freely as about 20,000 gathered before the Birkenau camp to hear survivors tell of their horrific experiences, their words and pictures relayed on a huge screen set up in front of the cold, gray slate roofs of the preserved concentration camp buildings.

The screen displayed images of the camp's gas chambers and crematoriums, emaciated prisoners and a large banner reading "Never Again."

"There are so many people from around the world here, it is a guarantee this will not happen again," said Jenya Sonts, a Russian student, to the Haaretz daily. "We have all survived the Holocaust."

Speakers noted that 60 years after the war's end, the numbers of survivors are dwindling. They called on succeeding generations to keep the memory alive.

Sharon's speech at the closing ceremony was tinged with anger, as he addressed the grandchildren of survivors he brought with him — many of them in Israeli army uniforms.

"Remember the victims and remember the murderers. Remember how millions of Jews were led to their deaths and the world remained silent," Sharon said. "The world stood aside then in silence. Remember. You are free Jewish youth."

He grieved for the millions who perished and lauded the survivors who came to Israel as it was being formed from the ashes of the Holocaust, fought in the war that followed its creation and raised families.