March of the Living 2014 to Commemorate Decimation of Hungarian Jewry

NEW YORK, April 9, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Janos Ader, President of Hungary, will speak in Auschwitz to a group of over 10,000 people from around the world at March of the Living on Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), Monday, April 28, 2014.

The March brings together a diverse group of students, young adults, survivors and liberators, for a week of intensive education that examines the roots of prejudice and hate while touring Holocaust sites in Poland.

This year's March marks the 70^th anniversary of the destruction of Hungarian Jewry during the Holocaust. It is estimated that between one third and one half of the 1.1 million Jews murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau were Hungarian.

Today, Hungary remains plagued by intolerance and is ranked among the most anti-Semitic countries in Europe.

To commemorate the once thriving Hungarian community, hundreds of Jews from Budapest and around the world will gather in Hungary's capital to participate in a moving tribute on the Saturday night just prior to the March when they will travel to Auschwitz-Birkenau by train, mirroring the deportation of the over half-million Hungarian Jews.

They will then join the rest of the participants for the three-kilometer march from Auschwitz to Birkenau where special tribute will be extended to the memory of Hungarian Jewry.

Leonardo Farkas, a Chilean philanthropist of Hungarian descent, will address the participants, representing the legacy of Hungarian Jewry. He will be dedicating a new Torah scroll – its final words being written at Birkenau – in honor of those who perished.

Rabbi Elie Abadie of New York's Edmond J. Safra Synagogue, will speak about the Holocaust's impact on established Sephardic Jewish communities in France, the Netherlands, Yugoslavia and Greece, which almost disappeared.

This year's additional themes include:

• Remembering the millions of other innocent human beings who perished in modern genocides, including the Rwandan Genocide

• Honoring the Righteous among the Nations who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust

• Highlighting Sephardic communities impacted by the Holocaust

• A tribute to survivors who picked up the pieces of their shattered world

• Honoring the creation of the State of Israel

The journey starts in Poland just prior to Yom HaShoah and continues in Israel where participants honor Israel's fallen soldiers on Yom Hazikaron—Israel's Memorial Day and celebrate Israel's Independence on Yom Ha'Atzmaut.

SOURCE The International March of the Living