Tens of thousands of people were expected to take part in this year's March of the Living on Thursday, which will mark the 30th anniversary of the annual event in Poland.
The march, held every year on Holocaust Remembrance Day, is a 3-kilometer (2-mile) walk from Auschwitz to Birkenau as a tribute to all victims of the Holocaust.
Israel's President Reuven Rivlin will lead the march and will be joined by IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh, Mossad chief Yossi Cohen and Shin Bet security agency chief Nadav Argaman. Israel's Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau will speak at the event.
This year's march will be held under a cloud of recent tensions between Israel and Poland over the European country's controversial Holocaust law. Under the new law, anyone who suggests "publicly and against the facts" that the Polish state was complicit in Nazi Germany's crimes can face up to three years in prison.
Many in Israel have criticized the law as a Polish attempt to evade responsibility for crimes against Jews during the Holocaust.
Polish President Andrzej Duda was expected to take part in the event and deliver a speech at the main ceremony at the end of the march. More than 12,000 youths were slated to arrive in Poland in 110 delegations from 41 countries, including from Argentina, Canada, Chile, the U.S., Poland, the U.K. and Morocco.
For the first time, a delegation from Japan will also join the march.
Silent commemoration of loss
Ever since the first March of the Living event in 1988, over 260,000 people from 52 countries have silently marched the 3-kilometer stretch of train tracks leading to Auschwitz-Birkenau to commemorate the greatest loss in Jewish and human history.
Throughout its 30-year history, prime ministers, Knesset members, IDF chiefs of staff, presidents, cabinet ministers, intellectuals and cultural leaders have taken part in the event.
"Six torches in memory of the 6 million who were murdered will be lit on the ruins of the Birkenau death camp this year, and a seventh torch will be lit to mark Israel's 70th anniversary," said Dr. Shmuel Rosenman, chairman of March of the Living International.
"In a world where anti-Semitism is only getting worse, where xenophobia is growing stronger, our educational messages are etched into the youth and will foster a better, more tolerant world," he added.
