Gantz to light torch at March of the Living ceremony

The first flights of American and Israeli youth groups to this year’s March of the Living ceremonies in Poland began departing Wednesday, as officials named IDF Chief of the General Staff Benny Gantz as one of the six torchlighters at the ceremony that closes the program.

The program will be led by Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, chief rabbi of Tel Aviv-Yaffo and chairman of the Yad Vashem Council, who was himself a child survivor of the Holocaust. Also addressing participants, along with Gantz, will be philanthropist Frank Lowy of Australia, a Holocaust survivor whose father perished in Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The six torches each reflect a theme that will pay tribute to the six million lives lost, the organizers said, as follows: to those who risked their lives saving Jews during the Holocaust; to the survivors who picked up the pieces of their shattered world and began life anew; to the rabbis, scholars, teachers and their students who perished; to the 1.5 million innocent Jewish children who were murdered by the Nazis; to the second generation who never had the privilege of knowing or loving their grandparents; and to celebrating the establishment of the State of Israel.

Participating in the Memorial Torch Lighting Ceremony will be Tami Hausner-Raveh, chair of Israel’s Channel 2 News and daughter of the chief prosecutor at the Eichmann trial, Gideon Hausner; Michael-Miki Gilad, chief inspector at Bureau 06 of the police and chief assistant at the Eichmann trial; Gantz, whose parents were survivors; Mark Siwiec; Vladimir Sloutsker; and Ambassador Ronald Lauder.

In honor of the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, this year’s program will feature a song written by March of the Living alumni entitled “Requiem of the Warsaw Ghetto.”

Participants in this year’s March of the Living will visit Warsaw’s Gensha Cemetery, Treblinka, Warsaw’s Nozak Synagogue, the newly opened Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Krakow’s Ghetto, Majdanek, and Oskar Schindler’s factory.

The stated aim of the March of the Living is to impart the lessons of the Holocaust, celebrate the history of Jewish survival and instill a passion for social justice. The journey starts in Poland and continues in Israel, where participants honor Israel’s fallen soldiers on Yom Hazikaron — Memorial Day, and celebrate Israel’s Independence on Yom Ha’atzma’ut.

The annual program brings 10,000-plus high school students from around the world for a week of intensive education and touring in Poland and Israel, to study the history of the Holocaust and examine the roots of prejudice, intolerance and hate. To date, over 180,000 students have participated.