Marsz Żywych w Auschwitz – Birkenau (Fot. Grzegorz Celejewski / Agencja Wyborcza.pl)

Tysiące Żydów na Marszu Żywych w Auschwitz-Birkenau. Andrzej Duda: “Nie wolno milczeć wobec nienawiści”

Milena Kuchnia

– Moja rodzina została zamordowana w Auschwitz. Jestem tu po raz pierwszy, żeby się z tym skonfrontować i stanąć w tym miejscu — opowiada 87-letnia Fran Malkin.

Wychowywała się w Sokalu na Wołyniu. Jako sierota trafiła do getta. Przez dwa lata Polka Francisca Halamajowa chowała ją w swojej piwnicy wraz z kilkunastoma innymi Żydami. – Trzynastu z nas na strychu nad chlewem, a trzech w piwnicy pod kuchnią. Miałam trzy lata. Jestem tu także dla niej — wyznaje Ocalała.

Fran Malkin, Ocalała z Holocaustu, podczas Marszu Żywych 2025 Fot. Grzegorz Celejewski / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

Marsz Żywych 2025. “My wyjdziemy stąd pieszo. Oni wyszli kominami, jako dym”

Od rana pod były niemiecki obóz koncentracyjny podjeżdżały autokary z żydowską młodzieżą z całego świata. W Polsce są już od kilku dni — odwiedzają miejsca zagłady, modlą się i uczestniczą w spotkaniach edukacyjnych.

Dziś, podczas Marszu Żywych, wraz z kilkusetosobową grupą polskich uczniów i studentów, pokonują tzw. “Drogę Śmierci” – trzykilometrową trasę spod bramy z napisem “Arbeit Macht Frei” w Auschwitz I do byłego obozu Auschwitz II — Birkenau. Na tegoroczny marsz przyjechało ok. 7 tys. młodych osób.

– Ja mam na liście szesnaście osób — mówi Amerykanin z grupy Davida Cohena. – Żeby się tego wszystkiego dowiedzieć, wynająłem genealoga, a potem podjąłem decyzję o przyjeździe.

– Za chwilę przejdziemy przez bramę. Nasi przodkowie też ją kiedyś przekroczyli. My wyjdziemy pieszo. Oni wyszli kominami, jako dym — dodaje David.

Fot. Grzegorz Celejewski / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

Andrzej Duda: “Nie możemy milczeć wobec nienawiści wobec jakiegokolwiek narodu”

W tym roku marsz poprzedziło spotkanie prezydentów Polski i Izraela. O 10 rano politycy wspólnie złożyli wieńce pod Ścianą Śmierci i odwiedzili Pawilon Żydowski w Bloku 27 na terenie byłego obozu Auschwitz I. Następnie odbyli zamknięte, dwudziestominutowe spotkanie, po czym spotkali się z młodzieżą i z Ocalałymi z Holocaustu.

– Dziękuję prezydentowi Izraela, że wziął udział w Marszu Żywych, w roku 80-lecia wyzwolenia Auschwitz-Birkenau. Nie wolno milczeć wobec nienawiści wobec jakiegokolwiek narodu, bo to potem prowadzi do zagłady. Tragedię narodu żydowskiego nazywamy Holocaustem, ale to była dzika żądza nienawiści. Pamięć musi trwać jako ostrzeżenie dla świata — mówił Andrzej Duda.

Fot. Grzegorz Celejewski / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

– W dniach, kiedy znów podnosi się antysemityzm, musimy mówić światu “nigdy więcej” poprzez oświatę i kulturę — stwierdził Isaac Herzog, prezydent Izraela.

– W zeszłym roku zostałam zaproszona do Niemiec. Przełamałam się i po raz pierwszy w życiu postawiłam nogę w tym kraju. Rozmawiałam z wnukami i prawnukami nazistów. Oni błagają nas o wybaczenie. Nie możemy zapomnieć, ale możemy próbować dążyć do wybaczenia — mówiła jedna z Ocalałych. – Never forget! – krzyknęła inna.

Marsz rozpoczął się wołaniem do Boga o miłosierdzie

O godzinie 13 pod bramą “Arbeit Macht Frei” rozległ się dźwięk szofaru, tradycyjnego instrumentu z rogu  baraniego, który co roku rozpoczyna Marsz Żywych. To symboliczne wołanie do Boga o miłosierdzie.

Uczestnicy marszu w milczeniu wyruszyli w stronę Brzezinki. W powietrzu powiewały izraelskie flagi, widać było wypisane imiona i nazwiska zamordowanych oraz tablice z nazwami organizacji i państw — od Australii, przez USA, po Argentynę.

Z założenia marsz odbywa się w ciszy. Niektóre grupy szły jednak, śpiewając żydowskie pieśni.

Fot. Grzegorz Celejewski / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

Młodzi: Co to w ogóle znaczy dziś “nigdy więcej”?

Dlaczego zdecydowali się na przyjazd do Polski? Większość z nich to potomkowie ofiar Holocaustu. Mówią o swoich rodzinach, wymieniają nazwiska. Niektórzy znają dokładne daty, inni do tej pory nie poznali dokładnych losów swoich bliskich — dziadków, matek, wujków.

– Przyleciałam tu z Kanady z grupą stu dziesięciu młodych ludzi pochodzenia żydowskiego. Nieważne, ile książek o Holocauście by przeczytali, ile filmów obejrzeli, dopiero kiedy stają tutaj, dociera do nich, czego dopuściła się ludzkość — mówi Tammy Glied, której rodzina zginęła w Auschwitz. – Spalono tu właściwie całą moją rodzinę. Ponad pięćdziesiąt osób — mówi.

Grupa jest w Polsce od kilku dni. Marsz jest zwieńczeniem projektu edukacyjnego, podczas którego żydowska młodzież odwiedza miejsca zagłady, uczestniczy w warsztatach edukacyjnych i integruje się ze sobą.

– Co dzieje się w głowie dorosłego człowieka, który nagle stwierdza, że czyjeś pochodzenie jest powodem do zabijania? I co to w ogóle znaczy dziś “nigdy więcej”, jeśli wojna dzieje się kilkaset kilometrów stąd? – pyta Kanadyjka.

Fot. Grzegorz Celejewski / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

O historii swojej rodziny i powodach przyjazdu opowiada nam również Shari Graucher z Izraela. – Mój pradziadek i całe jego rodzeństwo trafili do Auschwitz. Jako jedyny przeżył. Wybierałem się do Oświęcimia latami, ale nigdy nie dotarłem. Kiedy wojna wybuchła u nas, a te straszne obrazy znów stały się rzeczywistością, poczułem, że to ten moment, że trzeba się z tym zmierzyć.

– Hitler nie miał dzieci, nie muszą tego oglądać. Jesteśmy tu my — synowie, córki i wnuki tych, których zamordowano — dodaje David Cohen, który do Auschwitz przyleciał z USA.

Shari Graucher, potomek ofiar Holocaustu podczas Marszu Żywych 2025 Fot. Grzegorz Celejewski / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

Echa wojny w Palestynie słyszalne w Auschwitz-Birkenau

Podczas upamiętnienia ofiar Holocaustu nie zabrakło odniesień do wojny izraelsko-palestyńskiej. “Bring them home!” – krzyczała jedna z uczestniczek. Inni trzymali zdjęcia ofiar aktualnej wojny. Na spotkaniu z Ocalałymi i ich rodzinami pojawił się zaproszony były zakładnik Hamasu.

Na trasie marszu pojawił się liczący kilka osób protest propalestyński. Jeden z uczestników marszu pokazał w ich stronę środkowy palec. Protestujących otoczyła policja.

Propalestyński protest podczas pochodu Marszu Żywych przez wiadukt. Fot. Grzegorz Celejewski / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

Marsz Żywych zakończy się uroczystościami w Brzezince. Prezydent Izraela weźmie w nich udział osobiście, a Andrzeja Dudę będzie reprezentował Wojciech Kolarski, szef Biura Polityki Międzynarodowej i Sekretarz Stanu w Kancelarii Prezydenta RP. 

Redagowała Dorota Gut

Rubio torpedoes the left’s anti-Israel stronghold inside the State Department

Jonathan S. Tobin

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio attends the International Women of Courage Awards at the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C., April 1, 2025. Credit: Liri Agami/Flash90.

For decades, a group of so-called “human rights” organizations—in particular, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch—have been waging war on the State of Israel. As NGO Monitor, the authoritative source on the subject, has documented, these groups have conducted a multifaceted campaign involving support for boycotts across the board, smearing it as an “apartheid” state, and promoting its isolation and prosecution on the international stage.

In doing so, these non-governmental organizations and the liberal publications that continue to treat them as credible sources have succeeded in transforming human rights from a righteous cause into a movement that is a politically powerful, thinly veiled engine of 21st-century antisemitism.

Those who follow U.S. foreign policy have become all too aware of this development, especially since the Hamas-led Palestinian terrorist attacks and atrocities in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Since then, this bogus “human rights” lobby has stepped up its efforts to delegitimize Israel’s efforts to defend itself and acted as tacit advocates for Hamas in falsely depicting the war in Gaza and against other Iranian proxies in Lebanon and Yemen as acts of “genocide.”

Most Americans have been largely unaware that a band of activists with similar goals and beliefs to those at Human Rights Watch and Amnesty have been operating from a base inside the U.S. government. Thanks to a reorganization of the U.S. State Department, announced this week by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, that may now be coming to an end.

This is much to the dismay of liberal outlets like The New York Times, in addition to former Obama and Biden administration staffers who are horrified about what they consider to be a “blow to U.S. values.” According to the Times, the Trump administration is signaling that it “cares less about fundamental freedoms than it does about cutting deals with autocrats and tyrants.” In an article that largely consisted of quotes from foes of President Donald Trump and Rubio, the offices, such as the human-rights bureau, that are being pared down and stripped of their autonomy were described as “a sort of voice of conscience for policymakers as they balance America’s interests with its values.”

Opponents of Israel

Phrased in that manner, this sounds like something terrible—a scheme that would truly undermine American advocacy for freedom abroad. But the giveaway as to what’s really at stake in this controversy came in the next sentence of the article. As the newspaper put it: “During the Biden administration, it offered internal criticism of Israel, arguing that it was not doing enough to protect civilians in Gaza.”

In other words, these bureaus have acted as a powerful check on the ability of any president to advance the U.S.-Israel relationship as well as to promote a malicious and false narrative that, like those spewing from Amnesty and Human Rights Watch, seeks to demonize Israel and any other targets of the political left. Though they are being portrayed in the liberal press as courageous truth-tellers working to spread freedom and democracy abroad, such officials have been acting in the grand tradition of State Department antisemites and Arabists who have sought to work against the interests of Israel and the Jewish people since the 1930s.

As Rubio explained in a government Substack post, for the past few decades, the State Department has operated several bureaus that, “provided a fertile environment for activists to redefine ‘human rights’ and ‘democracy,” to conform to the ideology of the same so-called “progressives” who have captured control of academia.

Often pursuing goals completely at odds with the foreign-policy objectives of the president and secretary of state, this growing band of biased bureaucratic ideologues has wielded considerable power and influence. To the frustration of those who understand the way that their agenda damages U.S. interests and allies, they’ve made a significant sector of the federal establishment into bastions of hostility to Israel and the governments of other nations that have been targets of the left, such as Hungary, Poland and Brazil. It also promoted policies that, as Rubio pointed out, “funneled millions of taxpayer dollars to international organizations and NGOs that facilitated mass migration around the world, including the invasion on our southern border.”

How could that be? And why has it taken so long for someone in authority to order changes like those that the current administration has put forward?

How rogue elements ruled

The answer to that question is fairly simple. Until now, no one in the White House or at the head of the State Department has tried to rein in what Rubio rightly termed “rogue” elements within the government.

They have operated with the impunity that comes with civil-service protections and the fact that past administrations either lacked the will or ability to restrain a powerful bureaucracy. As is true in almost all governmental departments and agencies, the permanent employees lean hard to the left. They also have managed to fend off any efforts to control them by manipulating the political appointees, who are supposed to be their bosses, treating them as incompetent amateurs who know little about how the government works in much the same manner as the characters in the classic British political comedy “Yes, Minister.”

It’s also true that, at least in principle, both the Obama and Biden administrations had no problem with this “human rights” lobby inside the State Department because they largely agreed with them.

Yet the inherent problem of having a portion of the government conducting an ideological foreign policy largely independent of the people at the top of the organizational flow chart became exposed in the last 16 months of Biden’s term in office. That’s because the anti-Israel bureaucrats, like the pro-Hamas mobs on college campuses, believed that the administration of President Joe Biden was insufficiently hostile to Israel after Oct. 7.

Biden’s civil war

As soon became apparent, the barbaric attack on Israeli civilians and the war to eradicate Hamas that followed had fomented nothing less than a civil war within the administration. Large portions of the permanent foreign-policy bureaucracy, as well as many of Biden’s political appointees ensconced in positions below the rank of cabinet and undersecretary rank, simply opposed the ambivalent Biden stand on the war, in which he publicly opposed Hamas but at the same time didn’t want Israel to succeed in defeating it. They wanted a complete cutoff of U.S. aid and an American-imposed ceasefire that would enable Hamas to both survive the war they started and even to win it.

While some officials, including members of the State Department’s human-rights bureau, resigned in protest over Biden’s half-hearted support of Israel, most remained in place. They continued working to undermine that stand and help fund projects that would hurt Israel and aid Palestinians fighting it, including, as one Middle East Forum study noted, indirectly financing anti-Israel terrorism. Indeed, as the City Journal reported in February, USAID was directing American taxpayer dollars to Hamas.

That is the context with which Rubio’s reorganization should be understood.

One aspect of the scheme is that it will eliminate redundancies and reduce costs in keeping with the mandate of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), initially guided by billionaire Elon Musk.

Backing human rights

Rubio, who, as the Times noted, was an ardent supporter of human rights and encouraged using American power to advocate for freedom abroad during his 14 years in the U.S. Senate. Contrary to the assertions of his critics, he has not changed his mind about the importance of the issue. Rather, he is attempting to rescue the cause of human rights and democracy from activists who have turned it into a crusade against Israel and other governments, such as that of Hungary, which is falsely labeled as authoritarian because of its resistance to left-wing attempts to undermine its national identity.

Rubio’s plan involves a massive shift that he hopes will end the radical power base inside the State Department by stripping it of its autonomy and putting it inside existing regional bureaus, where it won’t be free to undermine Trump’s pro-Israel policy or fund groups working to promote policies and ideas antithetical to U.S. interests. 

Under Rubio’s plan, there will still be plenty of people at the State Department who will be tasked with monitoring human rights around the world and seeking to promote American values of liberty, including political and economic freedom. The administration will also preserve the office of the special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism. Reportedly, it will shift to a global Jewish affairs coordinator rather than the old division under the office of the undersecretary of civilian security, human rights and democracy—a section of Foggy Bottom that was a major part of the problem Rubio is trying to solve. The Office of International Religious Freedom will also still be there.

Will Rubio succeed in taming and redirecting the energy of the diplomatic bureaucracy away from toxic left-wing activism and toward efforts that will promote American interests and strengthen U.S. ties with Israel and other allies? Only time will tell, but as Trump has demonstrated on other issues, such as his efforts to reform or defund academic institutions that tolerate and encourage antisemitism, enacting such fundamental changes requires bold strokes and decisive leadership.

For far too long, the administrative state, of which the left-wing elements in the State Department were a key part, ruled as an unelected and unaccountable fourth branch of the U.S. government that was dedicated to pursuing left-wing policies that no one had voted for. Trump and Rubio have rightly decided this has to end.

Their actions will provoke much consternation and pearl-clutching from the foreign-policy establishment and its liberal media cheerleaders. But their taking an axe to a portion of the State Department bureaucracy run by radicals is a victory for friends of Israel and American interests, and a clear defeat for their opponents who operate under the false flag of “human rights” advocacy.

Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of the Jewish News Syndicate, a senior contributor for The Federalist, a columnist for Newsweek and a contributor to many other publications. He covers the American political scene, foreign policy, the U.S.-Israel relationship, Middle East diplomacy, the Jewish world and the arts. He hosts the JNS “Think Twice” podcast, both the weekly video program and the “Jonathan Tobin Daily” program, which are available on all major audio platforms and YouTube. Previously, he was executive editor, then senior online editor and chief political blogger, for Commentary magazine. Before that, he was editor-in-chief of The Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia and editor of the Connecticut Jewish Ledger. He has won more than 60 awards for commentary, art criticism and other writing. He appears regularly on television, commenting on politics and foreign policy. Born in New York City, he studied history at Columbia University.

‘The Jewish Spirit’: Holocaust Survivors, Freed Israeli Hostages Gather at Auschwitz for ‘March of the Living’

Debbie Weiss

Holocaust survivors, relatives of Israeli hostages, and survivors of Hamas captivity marched together at Auschwitz for the annual March of the Living on April 24, 2025. Photo: Chen Schimmel

Oswiecim, Poland — Holocaust survivors, relatives of Israeli hostages, and survivors of Hamas captivity marched together at Auschwitz, the infamous former Nazi concentration camp in Poland, for the first time on Thursday, joining Israeli President Isaac Herzog in the annual March of the Living.

The march from Auschwitz I to Auschwitz II-Birkenau — the Nazis’ largest death camp where 1 million Jews were murdered during World War II — took place on Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day and included 80 Holocaust survivors, many of whom were also death march survivors, to mark 80 years since the liberation of the camps. 

March of the Living president Phyllis Greenberg Heideman addressed the survivors, who were seated next to the gate bearing the notorious inscription, “Work sets you free.”

“It’s a strange thing to say, but we welcome you to Auschwitz,” she said. “You are the true heroes. We will treasure your legacy forever.”

Almog Meir Jan and his mother Orit. Almog was rescued by the IDF on June 5 during the Arnon Mission. Photo: Chen Schimmel

Standing outside the crematoria and gas chambers at Auschwitz I, recently released hostage Eli Sharabi said, “The Holocaust was unlike anything else — we will never forget and never forgive.”

“But our presence here is the triumph of the Jewish spirit. The Jewish people sanctify life, not death. I endured horrors in enemy captivity, but I chose life. That gives me hope to get up each morning and begin rebuilding,” he added. 

Sharabi, whose wife and daughters were murdered during Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, was released in February after nearly 500 days in captivity. His emaciated appearance as he was paraded through Gaza on his release led to comparisons with concentration camp survivors. 

Pro-Israel influencer Shiraz Shukran broke down after seeing Sharabi. The two embraced for several minutes. “Seeing him in real life, in this place, just made it all suddenly seem very close. This is no longer something that happened 80 years ago; it’s continuing until this day,” Shukran told The Algemeiner.

Pro-Israel influencer Shiraz Shukran embracing former hostage Eli Sharabi. Photo: Debbie Weiss / The Algemeiner

In remarks to reporters prior to the march, Herzog called the return of the hostages a “universal human imperative.”

“With a broken heart, I remind us all that although after the Holocaust we vowed, ‘Never again,’ today, even as we stand here, the souls of dozens of Jews again ‘yearn within a cage,’ ‘thirsting for water and for freedom,’ as 59 of our brothers and sisters are held by terrorist murderers in Gaza, in a horrific crime against humanity,” Herzog said, referring to the hostages kidnapped during Hamas’s Oct. 7 invasion who remain in captivity.

His Polish counterpart, President Andrzej Duda, said the march was “a dramatic call of ‘never again.’ No more hatred, no more discrimination, no more antisemitism.”

He called for “all wars in the Middle East to end,” and for a two-state solution, which he said was the “most rational solution [to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict] that gives hope for achieving stable and lasting peace.”

The two leaders signed the visitors’ book and laid a wreath at Auschwitz’s Black Wall, where the Nazis executed prisoners.

At the march’s opening ceremony, the head of the Republican Jewish Coalition, Matt Brooks, lit one of six candles — representing the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis — and addressed rising antisemitism in the world.  

“Jews all over the world fear walking streets with a kippah and it’s unacceptable. College students are being attacked verbally and physically,” he told The Algemeiner. 

He praised US President Donald Trump for “combating this scourge.”

“There’s a new sheriff in town. It’s my hope the rest of the world can look to him to see how to support and defend the Jewish community against these vile attacks,” he said.

Matt Brooks, chief executive officer of the Republican Jewish Coalition, with Malcolm Hoenlein, vice chairman emeritus of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Photo: Debbie Weiss / The Algemeiner

In Block 5, where thousands of victims’ eyeglasses are displayed behind glass, Laly Dery told a delegation of Israeli teenagers from the national civil service about her son, Sgt. First Class (res.) Saadia, who fell in battle in Gaza in June.  

“Just like my son, who served the country with every fiber of his being, you have earned the enormous privilege of serving the state of Israel,” Dery said. 

Derai’s words resonated with Sara Bisan, the only member of the national service delegation not wearing an Israeli flag. Instead, Bisan wore the distinctive multi-colored flag of the Druze community to which she belongs.

“I feel her pain, and it hurts,” Bisan said, reflecting on the death of her own friend from the northern Druze village of Kfar Yarka, who was also killed in Gaza.  

“But our people, the Druze and the Jews, share a lot, including a love of Israel. I also feel that serving the state of Israel is a privilege,” she added.

Sara Bisan. Photo: Debbie Weiss / The Algemeiner

Twelve thousand participants marched the 1.7 miles from Auschwitz to Birkenau for the main ceremony, which was cut short this year due to heavy rain.

As thunder echoed overhead, released hostage Agam Berger played the theme from “Schindler’s List” on a 150-year-old violin rescued during the Holocaust. Daniel Weiss, a survivor from Kibbutz Be’eri whose father was murdered on Oct. 7 and whose mother was abducted and later killed in Gaza, performed a musical rendition of the psalm Shir Lamaalot alongside her.

“The Lord will guard you from all evil; He will guard your soul,” Weiss sang, his voice quavering.