The March of the Living: Yom Ha'Shoah at Auschwitz-Birkenau

Résumé du document

The March of the Living may have several definitions. It is above all a march, from the symbolic gate 'arbeit macht frei' of Auschwitz, to the crematorium of Auschwitz-Birkenau, as a ceremony of remembrance. This march takes place on the day of Yom HaShoah, the Holocaust Remembrance Day of Israel and the Jews of all over the world. Another definition of the March of the Living is 'an educational trip', about two-week long, organised for the young Jews of many nationalities, in Poland and in Israel. Finally, another way to define the March of the Living to describe it as an answer to the 'death marches' that took place at the end of the Second World War. What kind of representation of the Holocaust, and of remembrance of it, is the March of the Living? Among the various ways of representing the Shoah, of mourning the dead, especially when they are members of family, how can we perceive the March of the Living? All of this also raises once again the question of the representation of Judaism. The March of the Living is a special day for the Jews. How is the Jewish identity represented and understood by the youth during the march and during the very day of the March? How is it organised by the adults, and what are their educational objectives?

Extraits

[...] The last point is very important to understand the influence and the objectives of the MOL as more or less a sionist event. First of all during the whole trip, it is clear to all the scholars that Poland is presented as the world of death, in opposition to Israel, the world of Jewish life. As we said previoulsy, they are, for some groups, only going to places of Jewish death in silence and mourning atmosphere, whereas they go in Israel to commemorate Yom Hazikaron and celebrate Yom Ha'atzma'ut, the Israeli independence day. [...]

[...] The idea of the program is to commemorate/celebrate three of the four national days of Israel through a trip in Poland and then in Israel. In Poland, the youngsters and the adults commemorate Yom Ha'Shoah in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Yom Ha'Shoah, or Ha'Shoah Ve'Hagvura” is the of Remembrance of the Holocaust and the Heroism”, on the 27th of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar1. Then they go for a trip throughout Poland in death camps but also in other places of Jewish memory - and for some groups in places of Jewish current life. [...]

[...] What was visually striking during the March of the Living in 2006 was all these Israeli flags in which the youngsters were wrapping 5 This was especially an attitude of the Likud party, after the 1967 war, a Likud politician Abba Eban claimed that going back to the former borders would be coming to the borders of Auschwitz themselves, taking off all of the other signs of their nationalities. When they entered the camp or the gas chambers wrapped in those flags, it was as if they were protected and triumphant, as survivors coming back to the camp. How important is the March of the Living for a youngster building his/her Jewishness ? What influence has it on the self-representation of them as Jews ? According to the survey of William B. [...]

[...] The March of the Living may have several definitions. It is above all a march, from the symbolic gate arbeit macht frei of Auschwitz I to the crematorium of Auschwitz II Birkenau, for a ceremony of remembrance. This march takes place on the day of Yom Ha'Shoah, the Holocaust remembrance day of Israel and for the Jews of all over the world. Another definition of the March of the Living is an educational trip, about two-week long, organised for the young Jews of many nationalities, in Poland and in Israel. [...]

[...] This leads us to raise the question of : what is the role of such a day as the March of the Living for a youngster building his/her identity as a Jew ? Being a day for Yom'Ha'Shoah above all, what is the meaning of the MOL for a young Jew ? As we said before, from the 1960's the Shoah became a main component of the Jewish identity; especially in Israel when after the 6-day war in 1967, the Holocaust scheme was used by some politicians to defend the interests of Israel5. [...]