Rapper Meek Mill Joins Patriots Owner Robert Kraft on ‘Impactful’ March of the Living Through Auschwitz

hiryn Ghermezian

Robert Kraft and American rapper Meek Mill attend the 35th anniversary of International March of the Living” at the former Nazi-German Auschwitz Birkenau concentration and extermination camp in Oswiecim, Poland, on April 18, 2023. Photo: Beata Zawrzel/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect.

American rapper Meek Mill was part of a delegation led by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft on the International March of the Living (MOTL) on Tuesday through the former Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp complex in Poland in commemoration of Holocaust Remembrance Day.

During the annual march, thousands of participants walk three kilometers through Auschwitz, the largest Nazi concentration camp during World War II. The 35th anniversary of March of the Living this year also celebrated the 75th anniversary of the state of Israel and 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Kraft, who is Jewish, led a delegation through his Foundation to Combat Antisemitism and Meek Mill called the experience “impactful” in an Instagram post that included a photo from the march.

“My job with Robert on this mission is to build a bridge and make sure our cultures connect to a very high level to where we understand each other and we make bridges, to make the world a better place,” said the two-time Grammy-nominated rapper during his time in Poland.

Kraft’s wife also joined the march, led by roughly 40 Holocaust survivors, along with former United States Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, philanthropist Miriam Adelson, CNN anchors Dana Bash and Wolf Blitzer, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, Italian President Sergio Mattarella, US Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides and others.

“The March of the Living serves as a powerful statement of solidarity for all those who have been victims of intolerance and discrimination, and reminds us that we must stand up against Jewish hate and all injustice to ensure that history does not repeat itself,” Kraft said before the march at Auschwitz, where he was given the honor of lighting one of the six torches that commemorate the six million people who died in the Holocaust.

Kraft added, “in today’s world you wouldn’t believe that human beings could treat other human beings [like this] and what transpired at this camp really happened, and we have to be mindful of that.”

Kraft’s Foundation to Combat Antisemitism launched in March a campaign called Stand Up to Jewish Hate, which asks the public to share the blue square emoji as “a simple, but powerful symbol of solidarity and support for the Jewish community” against antisemitism. MOTL partnered with the campaign and gave every participant on this year’s march a blue square pin, and encouraged them to post and share a blue square on social media.

The theme of this year’s MOTL was “Honoring Jewish Heroism,” highlighting Jewish freedom fighters during the Holocaust.