No senior Israeli and Polish officials are expected to participate in the annual International March of the Living, set to begin on Thursday, amid tensions between Jerusalem and Warsaw.
More than 10,000 Jewish and non-Jewish youth from 40 countries along with dozens of Holocaust survivors and dignitaries from around the globe were expected to participate in the almost-2-mile march from Auschwitz to Birkenau to pay tribute to Holocaust victims and call for an end to anti-Semitism.
For the first time, the event's main ceremony will recall Greek Jewry, which was almost completely annihilated by the Nazis and their collaborators.
Greece will send a distinguished delegation to the march, Bartholomew I, Archbishop of Constantinople New Rome; Ecumenical Patriarch, the leader of tens of millions of Orthodox Christians around the globe; and Nikos Voutsis, the speaker of the Greek Parliament.
U.S. officials expected to attend include U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, U.S. Ambassador to Poland Georgette Mosbacher and Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism Elan Carr.
However, the most senior Israelis on the trip will be Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon and Jewish Agency head Isaac Herzog, The Times of Israel reported on Tuesday.
No Polish officials are expected to attend.
This is due to tensions between Israel and Poland, with the latter in 2018 criminalizing those who attribute Nazi crimes to the Poles.
In response to backlash from Israel and others, Poland amended the law, making offenses no longer punishable by jail.
During last year's march, President Reuven Rivlin told his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda that although Poles helped save Jews during the Holocaust, they also aided and abetted their annihilation.
"The country of Poland allowed the implementation of the horrific genocidal ideology of [Nazi leader Adolf] Hitler and witnessed the wave of anti-Semitism sparked by the law you passed now," Rivlin said during a joint press conference with Duda.
In February, Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz said in an interview, "I am the son of Holocaust survivors. We will never forgive and never forget, and there were many Poles who collaborated with the Nazis."
Quoting former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, Katz added: "Shamir said every Pole sucked anti-Semitism with his mother's milk. Nobody will tell us how to express our stance and how to honor the dead."
These remarks were made after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Warsaw summit earlier this year said that Poles cooperated with Nazis during the Holocaust and that no one has been sued for asserting this truth.
A mere 380,000 Polish Jews out of 3.3 million survived World War II and the Holocaust.
Mosbacher called on Israel to apologize to Poland for Katz's comments.
'Put an end to the hate, fear and loss'
Nonetheless, in response to the torrent of anti-Semitic events and growing global trend of hate crimes against Jews over the last two years, the March of the Living will host the first-ever "Emerging Leadership Conference" in Kraków for hundreds of youth from around the world who have been impacted by anti-Semitism.
During the conference, 20 Jewish and non-Jewish youth representatives will sign an official declaration launching the campaign, a rallying and defiant call to other youth to commemorate the Holocaust and help put an end to anti-Semitism so that history does not repeat itself. The youth leaders will then promote the campaign via social-media platforms under the hashtag #SayNoToAntisemitism.
The conference comes just days after the April 27 attack on the Chabad of Poway synagogue in Southern California that left a 60-year-old woman, Lori Gilbert-Kaye, dead and three others, including the founding rabbi of the Chabad center and an 8-year-old girl, injured.
"The awful, senseless murder in Poway, California, is just the latest in a seemingly endless string of violent anti-Semitic events – one of the most challenging periods in recent memory for the international Jewish community," said Shmuel Rosenman, March of the Living founder and co-chairman.
"This murder coincides with the kickoff to a week during which we honor the victims of the Holocaust, one of the greatest tragedies in human history, an affront to humanity that was born out of virulent anti-Semitism," he continued. "Our world leaders must pay attention to the warning signs and do everything in their power to combat anti-Semitism in all its forms.
"Thousands of people will be marching from Auschwitz to Birkenau to remind them of their responsibility to put an end to the hate, fear and loss," he said.
This article is reprinted with permission from JNS.org.
