Holocaust Survivors and families of Oct. 7 victims emphasize the urgency of remembering

• Published date: 07 May 2024
• Author: DEBORAH DANAN/JTA
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Then, on October 7, Hamas invaded Israel, perpetrating the bloodiest day for Jews since the Holocaust - and bringing another tragedy to Haim's family: Yotam, her grandson, was taken hostage by the terror group. He escaped with friends, only to be killed by Israeli soldiers in a case of mistaken identity in December

"I can't believe I'm here. I'm shaking," Haim told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency outside a barrack in the death camp. She said she believed the Holocaust would never repeat itself.

"But then it did," she said, referring to the Hamas attack, in which roughly 1,200 people were murdered and 250 taken hostage, including Yotam.

"My walking here today is revenge against all the evil in the world," she said. "The time has come."

Haim was visiting Auschwitz as part of the March of the Living, an annual journey that takes thousands of participants, including Holocaust survivors, to Nazi concentration camps in Poland and then to Israel. The group always includes Holocaust survivors; this year, seven months after October 7, they were joined by 23 survivors and relatives of victims of Hamas' massacre, as well as by TikTok pro-Israel influencers who have battled antisemitism online. People in all of the groups told JTA that this year, the program carries an extra layer of meaning and urgency.

Remembrance amidst crisis

"Every year it's important to be here," said Thomas Hand, whose 9-year-old daughter Emily was taken hostage by Hamas and released during a ceasefire in November. "But this year it's times a hundred more important. We're living through another Holocaust. We're actually in one. This is supposed to be never again, but this is again."

The centerpiece of the itinerary is a march on Holocaust Remebrance Day, Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day, between the concentration camps Auschwitz and Birkenau, which the group completed on Monday. Budapest-born Laszlo Selly, who lives in Miami and came with a group of high schoolers from Florida, said he felt "tremendous sadness" being in Auschwitz, along with "tremendous hope" for the future.

"Since October 7, it is now more important than ever for these kids to learn about what happens if people with hate in their hearts gain control so that they do everything in their power to prevent it from happening again," he said.

Born in 1937, Selly was 7 years old when he and his twin brother were rescued from Budapest and hidden during the Nazi occupation of Hungary. Selly's father escaped from a work camp and...