Accompanied by thousands of students, adults and Holocaust survivors, senior Arielle Albert participated in a three-kilometer march from Auschwitz to Birkenau to honor victims of the Holocaust.
The journey was part of the March of the Living program, through which Albert spent a week in Poland and a week in Israel. In Poland, Albert visited concentration and death camps, mass graves and cemeteries, and marched during Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. In Israel, she marched to the Western Wall in Jerusalem. The trip spanned from April 12 to April 27.
“The West Coast delegation of 24 kids walked with our arms linked, surrounded by 10,000 other Jewish kids our age, out of Auschwitz and into Birkenau willingly and in good health,” Albert said. “Millions of Jews were not able to walk out of Auschwitz in good health or at all, and we are the living proof they did not succeed in killing us [Jews].”
The March of the Living is an international organization that began in 1988. Over 200,000 people from around the world have completed the march, according to March of the Living International. Albert decided to attend the program last summer. To participate in the program, students submit applications, beginning in November. Albert also visited villages where Jewish life once was and saw the old temples and destroyed cemeteries.
“It is a life-transforming trip for some students and a life-affirming trip for others,” said program coordinator and chaperone Susan Gavens. “The students start the trip as teenagers and they come home as young adults with a clearer understanding of the history of the Jewish people from pre-war Poland to present day Israel.”
Throughout the entire trip, Albert was accompanied by a Holocaust survivor named Manya, who Albert describes as strong and full of joy and energy.
“Manya lost a lot during the war but she wakes up each day thankful for being alive and healthy and lives each day to the fullest,” Albert said. “She’s taught me to appreciate every moment and not to dwell on the sadness and cruelty that life has to offer.”
The trip was especially meaningful to Albert because her grandfather lived in Poland and experienced and lost his family during the Holocaust.
Albert also believes that it is important for every Jew to visit the camps at one point in their lives to remember the atrocities that affected six million Jews and numerous others.
