Grace Gilson reports for JTA.
Ten released and rescued Israeli hostages will travel to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp site on Thursday for March of the Living on Yom Hashoah, Israel’s Holocaust remembrance day.
March of the Living, the annual pilgrimage to the Holocaust sites in Poland and then to Israel, sees thousands of participants march alongside Holocaust survivors to memorialize those lost. Last year, 23 survivors and relatives of those killed in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack of Hamas on Israel also took part in the march.
This year, the 10 freed hostages will accompany Israeli President Isaac Herzog. They are:
- Eli Sharabi, who was released in February and lost his wife and teen daughters when Hamas attacked his home on Kibbutz Beeri
- Hagar Brodutch, who was released during the November 2023 ceasefire.
- Almog Meir Jan, who was rescued in a June 2024 Israeli military operation.
- Moran Stella Yanai, who was released during the November 2023 ceasefire.
- Gadi Moses, who was released during a ceasefire in January.
- Keith Siegel, an American-Israeli hostage who was released during the ceasefire in February and has since spoken frequently about his experience in captivity.
- Chen Goldstein Almog, who was released during the November 2023 ceasefire.
- Raaya Rotem, who was released during the November 2023 ceasefire.
- Agam Berger, an Israeli soldier who was released during a ceasefire in January and had braided the hair of other hostages, inspiring women who began braiding their hair in solidarity with her.
- Ori Megidish, an Israeli soldier, who was the first to be successfully rescued weeks after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack.
Families of hostages and those killed in the Oct. 7 attack will also be present along with around 80 Holocaust survivors, ages 80 to 97. Survivors will include Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, who was freed from Buchenwald as a child and served as Israel’s Ashkenazi chief rabbi.
This year’s march comes on the heels of a report released by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, known as the Claims Conference, which found that half of Holocaust survivors alive today will be dead within 6 years, a finding that has renewed urgency to preserve the stories of survivors.
Prior to the march, Herzog will meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda to discuss efforts to free the remaining 59 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, 24 of whom are thought to be alive, as well as efforts to combat antisemitism.
