Outrage as pro-Palestine activists stage protest exterior Auschwitz
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators massed near the grounds of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp today, rolling out flags and hoisting balloons as groups gathered for the ‘March of the Living’ in remembrance of the victims.
Shocking scenes showed protestors displaying flags at groups wearing Israeli flags along the sidelines of the event, which brings together thousands annually to observe Holocaust Remembrance Day in silence.
Survivors of Hamas‘ October 7 incursion into southern Israel were also in attendance as participants marched the two-mile (three kilometre) walk from Auschwitz to Birkenau, where approximately one million Jews were systematically killed by Nazi Germany during the Second World War.
Just last week, distressing footage invoked fury as a man filmed himself walking through the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Auschwitz and saying: ‘You belong here. This is your place of origin. You left these camps and ghettos. Long live Palestine.’
Tensions continue to soar as the war in the Levant approaches seven months. As ceasefire talks continue in Cairo, Israel is preparing to invade the Gazan city of Rafah, today ordering 100,000 people to evacuate and sparking outrage from those sympathetic to the Palestinian cause worldwide.
People demonstrate with Palestinian flags on the sidelines of the March of the Living route
The event near the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp annually marks Holocaust Remembrance Day
Bellha Haim, grandmother of the murdered hostage Yotam Haim, participates in the March of the Living at Auschwitz on May 6, 2024
A man holds Israel’s flag at the former Nazi German death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau during the annual Holocaust remembrance event, in Oswiecim, Poland, on May 6, 2024
Acknowledging the protests, the International March of the Living said in a statement: ‘We marched today to give a voice to the six million victims of the Nazi’s industrial genocide of the Jewish people.
‘We marched with survivors of the Nazi atrocities as well as survivors of Hamas’ crimes and families of those still held in captivity.
‘The half a dozen protestors who perversely saw this as an opportunity to voice hatred against Israel and the Jewish people serve as a timely reminder of the importance of Holocaust education and remembrance and of teaching the dangers of hatred and extremism.’
The event, now in its 36th year, usually draws thousands of participants, including Holocaust survivors and Jewish students, leaders and politicians.
Fifty-six survivors of the Shoah are expecting to take part in the march alongside an anticipated 10,000 others travelling from across the world to observe the date.
This year, Israeli hostages released from captivity in Gaza and families whose relatives are still being held captive will also join the march.
Poland, which until the Holocaust was the home of Europe’s largest Jewish community, numbering some 3.3 million, now counts just a few thousand Jewish inhabitants in its population.
The country continues to grapple with anti-Semitism despite the memory of the Holocaust.
A pre-war survey found more than a third of people in Poland have ‘extensive’ anti-Semitic beliefs.
Last week, a man was detained in Poland ‘in connection to’ the hurling of Molotov cocktails at the only Synagogue to have survived the Holocaust, an attack that drew ire from Polish officials and Jewish leaders.
Photos showed the aftermath of the attack on the Nożyk Synagogue.
‘If it (the bottle) had gone 15 centimetres to the left it would have reached the window and possibly inside the synagogue. There’s a library there,’ Poland‘s chief rabbi Michael Schudrich told reporters at the time.
Reports continue to cite the unnerving trend of rising anti-Semitism across Europe as tensions soar over the conflict in Gaza.
Hamas, the de facto governing authority in the Palestinian enclave, took more than 250 people hostage and killed some 1,170, mostly civilians, in a surprise attack on Israel on October 7 last year.
One hundred and thirty two hostages remained in Hamas captivity within the beleaguered Gaza Strip as of May 3, with 112 so far returned alive.
Hamas has said its attack was aimed against Israeli occupation and its blockade of Gaza, and pro-Palestinian activists deny any anti-Semitic motives in their opposition to Israel’s military offensive.
The subsequent Israeli invasion of Gaza, listing objectives to return the hostages and destroy Hamas, has triggered international protests, with rights groups and aid charities warning the 2.3 million people in Gaza face famine if operations continue.
