From the Liveblog of
Thursday, April 24, 2025
At March of the Living, Polish leader says lesson from Holocaust relevant to wars in Ukraine, Mideast
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
At the start of the March of the Living, marking 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz, President Isaac Herzog and Polish President Andrzej Duda offer statements at the concentration camp’s education center.
Duda, speaking in Polish, recounts the history of Auschwitz as a Polish village conquered by the Nazis in World War II, where they initially imprisoned Poles to use them in slave labor, but then gradually began using as a site of extermination.
“This place is hugely important not only for Jews but also for us, Poles,” says Duda, citing an estimate that more than 140,000 non-Jewish Poles perished at Auschwitz. “First and foremost, more than a million people were murdered here, people with Polish citizenship, Polish Jews.”
Duda says the March of the Living is a “demonstration of the manifestation of life and remembrance, as well as a dramatic call of never again, no more, no more hatred, no more chauvinism, no more antisemitism.”
“When the Nazis tried, led by ethnic hatred, a wild wish of destruction, to destroy the Jewish nation, we call it the Holocaust, but it was nothing less than a wild wish of destruction, of murder,” says Duda. “It failed thanks to the strength of life, to the will to survive by many members of the Jewish nation, those who wouldn’t give up until the very end in order to defeat the Nazis.”
Duda says he and Herzog spoke about the importance of Auschwitz as a place of remembrance, and a warning for the world that is especially significant now given the wars in Ukraine and in the Middle East.
“They pose a threat not only to the peace of our countries, but also to world peace,“ says Duda, adding that Poland hopes for a permanent peace in Ukraine “without any further Russian aggression.”
Duda says he spoke with Herzog about the Iranian threat to Israel, and about the Gaza war “that began with a Hamas attack on Israel.”
“I expressed hope that we will succeed in ending it, and that the hostages held by Hamas will be able to return home.”
The Times of Israel Community.